^Cj^*f -^Vut^ K Vv^t-.eU> •_ 



7* 
COLLECTIONS 



OF THE 






NEW JERSEY 



HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



VOLUME III. 



PRINTED FOR THE 

NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
1849. 



>. 



OFFICERS 

OF THE 

NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

1848. 



Hgn. JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER, LL. D., President, Newark. 
ROBERT G. JOHNSON, Esq., 1st Vice President, Salem. 
Hon. PETER D. VROOM, 2d " Trenton. 

Hon. JAMES PARKER, 3d " Perth Amboy. 

WILLIAM A. WHITEHEAD, Corresponding Secretary, Newark. 
DAVID A. HAYES, Recording Secretary, Neioark. ■ 
SAMUEL H. PENNINGTON, M. D., Librarian, Newark. 
JAMES ROSS, Treasurer, Newark. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 



Rev. NICHOLAS MURRAY, D. D., Chairman, Elizabethtown 

Rev. DANIEL V. McLEAN, D. D., Freehold. 

WILLIAM B. KINNEY, Newark. 

ARCHER GIFFORD, Newark. 

STACY G. POTTS, Trenton. 

Rev. JOHN MACLEAN, D. D., Princeton. 

LITTLETON KIRKPATRICK, New Brunswick. 

Rt. Rev. GEO. W. DOANE, D. D., LL. D., Burlington. 

ELIAS B. D. OGDEN, Paterson. 



committee on publication. 

Hon. WILLIAM A. DUER, LL. D. 
Rev. NICHOLAS MURRAY, D. D. 
CHARLES KING. 
Rev. ELI F. COOLEY. 
WILLIAM B. KINNEY. 
WILLIAM A. WHITEHEAD. 






V v 



PROVINCIAL COURTS OF NEW JERSEY. 



THE 



PROVINCIAL COURTS 



OF 



NEW JERSEY, 



WITH 



SKETCHES OF THE BENCH AND BAR. 



A DISCOURSE 



READ BEFORE THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



BY 



RICHARD S. FIELD. 



NEW- YORK: 

PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY. 

BY BARTLETT &, WELFORD. 

1849. 



Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1848, 

By Richard S. Field, 

In the Clerk's Office of the U. S. District Court for the District of the State 
of New Jersey. 



Leavitt, Trow & Co., Printers, 
49 Ann-street, New- York. 



PREFACE. 



The following Paper was prepared at the request of 
the Executive Committee of the New Jersey Historical 
Society. A portion of it was read at the annual meeting 
in Trenton, on the twentieth of January, 1848, and the 
residue at a meeting in Newark, on the twenty-fifth of 
May following. It was written without the slightest view 
to its being published, at least in its present form. While 
it was hoped, that it would not be altogether without value 
in the eyes of my professional brethren, to whom it was 
more particularly addressed, it was not supposed that the 
subject was one in which the public at large could be made 
to take much interest. The Society, however, having re- 
quested a copy for publication, I have not felt myself at 
liberty to withhold it. 

My object has been, not so much to bring together 
what is already known, with regard to our Courts, and the 
character of those who have figured on the Bench and at 
the Bar, as to rescue from the past ' such scattered memo- 
rials of them as were in danger of perishing for ever. I 



Vlll PREFACE. 



have confined my researches therefore entirely to our Pro- 
vincial Courts, and Colonial judges and lawyers are the 
only ones whose characters I have attempted to sketch. 
To those, whose attention has been turned to the subject, 
I need scarcely say, how slender are the materials which 
exist for such a work, and how meagre are the accounts 
which have come down to us, even of those who were the 
most distinguished in the early periods of our history. We 
know more, I suspect, of the early settlers of Massachu- 
setts and Virginia, than we do of those who first planted 
the Colony of New Jersey. I am sure we know more of 
the lawyers and judges of England prior to the American 
Revolution, than we do of those of our own State. We 
are much more familiar with the personages who graced 
the Court of Queen Anne, than with those who flourished 
here at the same time under the rule of her kinsman Lord 
Cornbury. 

I have been astonished too to find, how few of the 
names of distinguished Jerseymen are to be met with 
in the American Biographical dictionaries. While they 
abound with ample notices of second and third rate men 
of other sections of the country, those who have been truly 
eminent among us, seldom find a place in them. The truth 
is, our Biographical dictionaries have, for the most part, 
been written by New England men, and, as it would seem, 
for New England. We ought to have a Biographical 
dictionary of our own, and it may be worthy of considera- 
tion, whether a work of this description should not be 
undertaken under the auspices of our Historical Society. 

But we have no right to complain of others, for not 



PREFACE. i x 

cherishing the memory of our distinguished men. The 
fault is our own. We have never been true to ourselves. 
We have suffered the brightest names in our annals to grow 
dim, and the memory of our most glorious deeds to become 
almost effaced. While there is so much in our past history, 
and in our present condition, for which we should be grate- 
ful, and in which we have a right to exult, yet we have very 
little State pride ; and while we have been distinguished, 
beyond most others, for devotion to our common country, 
and loyalty to the Union, we have never exhibited much 
local patriotism. These, I am aware, are qualities, which 
may easily be carried to excess. They are virtues, which 
are perhaps nearly allied to vices; but they are virtues 
still, and, to a certain extent, deserve to be strengthened 
and fostered. 

What we more especially need at this time, is a well 
written history of our State. Mr. Whitehead's work is 
invaluable, as far as it goes ; but it is confined to East 
Jersey, and comes down only to the surrender of the gov- 
ernment to the crown, in 1702. When shall we have an 
equally faithful and accurate history of the whole State, 
from its first settlement to the adoption of the Constitution 
of 1844? Such a work remains to be written, and when 
it is, it will be found, if I mistake not, to possess an interest, 
which has never been thought to attach to the annals of 
our State. Bancroft, in his History of the United States, 
has touched upon the affairs of New Jersey just enough 
to show, how attractive they are capable of being made in 
the hands of a man of taste and genius. 

Take, for instance, the settlement of West Jersey by 



PREFACE. 



the Quakers. What a beautiful picture would it not pre- 
sent, if drawn by the pen of a master ! West Jersey under 
its Proprietary Government was, in fact, what Pennsylva- 
nia was only in name, a pure Quaker Commonwealth. It 
may be safely affirmed, that William Penn himself had 
more to do in moulding the institutions of West Jersey, 
that his spirit was more deeply infused into them, and that 
they reflected more clearly the pure and benign features 
of his character, than did those of the State which bore 
his name. In Pennsylvania, his views were often sadly 
thwarted, and his gentle sway was regarded with a jeal- 
ousy and distrust, which it is difficult for us at this day to 
understand. But in West Jersey, his influence was su- 
preme, his benevolent disposition was allowed free scope, 
and he was the object of unbounded love and confidence. 
Her Concessions and Agreements, her fundamental laws 
and Constitution, were nearly all the work of his hand ; 
all bear the impress of his character. 

So too the Revolutionary history of New Jersey ; how 
full of exciting scenes, how rich in thrilling incidents 
would it be! The sacrifices made by New Jersey, in 
blood and treasure, during the war of Independence, were 
greater, in proportion to her wealth and population, than 
those of any other Colony. The fury of the storm first 
burst upon her, and her territory was speedily overrun by 
hordes of foreign mercenaries. Within her borders were 
the most memorable, and the most glorious battle-grounds 
of the Revolution. She was enveloped in the darkest 
clouds of the contest, and the first gleams of a brighter day 
dawned upon her. Here Washington encountered his 



PREFACE. x i 

deepest distresses, and sustained his heaviest misfortunes ; 
but here too he made his most brilliant movements, and 
achieved his proudest triumphs. This is a chapter in 
American history which has never yet been written, but 
which we may hope soon to see from the pen of Mr. 
Bancroft. 

I cannot close these prefatory remarks, without ac- 
knowledging the many obligations which I am under to 
Mr. William A. Whitehead, the Corresponding Secretary of 
the New Jersey Historical Society, for the valuable assist- 
ance which he has rendered me in the prosecution of my 
researches. His intimate acquaintance with the history of 
New Jersey, has enabled him to furnish me with much 
information that could have been obtained from no other 
source. To Mr. Edward Armstrong, too, the Recording 
Secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, I am 
greatly obliged. To the copious extracts from the " Logan 
Papers," with which he has so kindly furnished me, am I 
indebted, for most of the particulars in the life of Roger 
Mompesson, the first Chief Justice of New Jersey. 

Princeton, Neio Jersey, December 28th, 1848. 



ERRATA. 

Page 127, line 17, for " ever" read even. 
" 158, line 12, for " Smyth" read Smith. 
" 178 note, for " father" read uncle, and for " son" read nephew 



DISCOURSE. 



Gentlemen of the Historical Society : 

In consenting to prepare for the use of the His- 
torical Society a brief history of the Courts of New 
Jersey, with notices of some of the more distin- 
guished members of the Bench and Bar, nothing 
was further from my expectation than to be called 
upon to read it upon such an occasion as this. 1 
Could I have anticipated such an audience, I might 
have sought a more attractive theme upon which 
to discourse — a subject the discussion of which I 
might have hoped to make interesting to all — rather 
than one which addresses itself in a peculiar manner 
to the members of a single profession. And yet, in 
attempting to glean from the history of the past 
something worthy of the attention of this Society, 



1 The annual meeting of the New popular character, than the Historical 

Jersey Historical Society, at which papers usually read before the So- 

it has been customary for an address ciety. 
to be delivered of a somewhat more 



2 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

I would have felt that it was much safer for me to 
seek for it along those paths which I am accus- 
tomed to frequent, rather than to explore fields to 
me new and untrodden, and where I could hardly 
hope to find any thing which had eluded the re- 
searches of those who had gone before. 

But however little there may be in the subject 
of my discourse to interest the feelings or excite 
the fancy, let me not be understood as meaning in 
the slightest degree to undervalue its importance. 
On the contrary, I am persuaded, there is no por- 
tion of the history of our State — rich as it is in the 
materials both for pleasant and profitable medita- 
tion — in the study of which we can be more use- 
fully employed, or in the contemplation of which 
we can feel a more honest pride, than in that which 
pertains to the administration of justice. The story 
of our battle-fields, the recital of the martial deeds 
of our ancestors, may be more stirring ; but the 
feelings which such scenes awaken are transient, 
and their influence has long since ceased to be felt. 
Whereas, to trace to their source the growth of 
laws and institutions under which we now live ; to 
look at the foundations upon which have been 
raised temples of justice still standing ; and to ga- 
ther up what remains of the life and character of 
those who have ministered at their altars, if it has 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 3 

less to excite, will yet be found to possess a pre- 
sent and an enduring interest. In truth, the great 
end for which all government is instituted, is neither 
more nor less than the administration of Justice. 
It is for this, that men consent to forego the exer- 
cise of their natural rights, and to submit to those 
restraints which society imposes. "He," says 
Lord Brougham in his celebrated speech on law re- 
form, 1 " He was guilty of no error — he was charge- 
able with no exaggeration — he was betrayed by his 
fancy into no metaphor, who once said, that all we 
see about us, King, Lords, and Commons, the whole 
machinery of the State, all the apparatus of the 
system, and its varied workings, end in simply 
bringing twelve good men into a box." • And if this 



1 Delivered in the House of Com- Government. " We are therefore to 
mons February 7, 1828. Lord Brough- look upon all the vast apparatus of 
am's Speeches, II. 324. An Ameri- our government as having ultimately 
can lawyer cannot read this admira- no other object or purpose but the 
ble speech without being led to re- distribution of justice, or in other 
mark, that most of the improvements words, the support of the twelve 
which are suggested in the state of judges. Kings and parliaments, fleets 
the law, and the method of proce- and armies, officers of the court and 
dure in Courts of Justice, had alrea- revenue, ambassadors, ministers, and 
dy been adopted in this country, and privy-counselors, are all subordinate 
were then in successful operation, in their end to this part of administra- 
And yet, while there are allusions to tion. Even the clergy, as their duty 
the laws of so many other countries leads them to inculcate morality, may 
scattered throughout the speech, there justly be thought, so far as regards 
is not the slightest reference to the this world, to have no other useful ob- 
United States. ject of their institution." — Hume's Es- 

2 The same idea is expressed by says, I. 63. 
Hume in his Essay on the Origin of 



4 ESTABLISHMENT OF COURTS. 

be true in any sense in other countries, it must be 
emphatically so here, where we may, in a peculiar 
manner, be said to live under the government of 
law. 

The history of New Jersey naturally divides it- 
self into three periods ; from the first settlement by 
the English to the surrender of the government to 
the crown ; from the surrender to the Revolution ; 
and from the Revolution to the present time. Or, 
in other words, New Jersey is to be viewed under 
a proprietary government, as a Colony, and as a 
State. It is to the period which preceded the sur- 
render, and when East and West Jersey were un- 
der distinct proprietary governments, that we are 
first to direct our attention. 

The establishment of Courts of Justice is al- 
most coeval with the first settlement of the State. 
While in the more populous and important Pro- 
vince of New York, we find Governor Nichols, dur- 
ing the whole of his administration, deciding alone, 
and in a most summary way, all controversies that 
arose ; l in East Jersey, on the other hand, consist- 



1 K He created," says the Historian parties, and after a summary hearing, 

of New York, " no courts of justice, pronounced judgment. His determi- 

but took upon himself the sole deci- nations were called edicts, and exe- 

sion of all controversies whatsoever, cuted by the sheriffs he had appoint- 

Complaints came before him by peti- ed." — Smith's New York, 55. 
tion, upon which he gave a day to the 



ESTABLISHMENT OF COURTS. 5 

ing though it did of a few feeble and scattered 
settlements, whose only security against the inroads 
of the savage was in the respect with which his right 
to the soil was always treated, 1 we find the most 
ample provision made for the distribution of justice 
between man and man, through the instrumentality 
of Courts, and by the intervention of a jury. By 
the concessions of Berkley and Carteret, the origi- 
nal proprietors of New Jersey, the power of erect- 
ing Courts and of defining their jurisdiction, was 
conferred upon the General Assembly. This body 
convened, for the first time in the history of New 



1 It must be a source of no ordinary 
gratification to Jerseymen to reflect, 
that the soil of their State has never 
been stained with the blood of the In- 
dian, nor an acre of her territory ob- 
tained by violence or fraud. Well 
has she merited the distinguished ho- 
nor paid to her by the Six Nations 
at a Convention held at Fort Stanwix 
in 1769, when in the most solemn 
manner they conferred upon New 
Jersey the title of the Great Doer of 
Justice. 

When the Legislature was applied 
to in 1832, by a remnant of the Del- 
aware tribe, to purchase certain rights 
of fishing and hunting which had been 
reserved to them by an ancient treaty, 
Mr. Southard, in advocating the claim, 
truly observed, " That it was a proud 
fact in the history of New Jersey, 
that every foot of her soil had been 
obtained from the Indians by fair and 



voluntary purchase and transfer — a 
fact, that no other State of the Union, 
not even the land that bears the name 
of Penn, can boast of." And in re- 
turning thanks to the Legislature for 
its liberality upon that occasion, an 
aged Indian, who represented the 
Delawares, thus spoke : " Not a drop 
of our blood have you spilled in bat- 
tle — not an acre of our land have you 
taken but by our consent. These 
facts speak for themselves, and need 
no comment. They place the char- 
acter of New Jersey in bold relief 
and bright example to those States, 
within whose territorial limits our 
brethren still remain. Nothing save 
benizens can fall upon her, from the 
lips of a Lenni Lenappi." Well 
may we exclaim on behalf of New 
Jersey, " The blessing of him that 
was ready to perish came upon me." 



6 ESTABLISHMENT OF COURTS. 

Jersey, in 1668, in Elizabethtown, fifteen years, by 
the way, in advance of any similar Assembly in the 
Province of New York. It held, however, only two 
Sessions of four days each, and passed but few 
laws ; and such was the unsettled state of the Pro- 
vince, that seven years elapsed before another As- 
sembly met. 1 So that it was not until 1675, that 
we are to look for the first establishment of Courts 
of Justice in New Jersey by legislative enactment. 
Prior to this, however, and as early as 1668, we 
find Courts existing both at Bergen and Wood- 
bridge ; 2 and it was to these tribunals that Governor 
Carteret appealed, and their protection which he in- 
voked, during the troubles which followed that me- 
morable day, when Quit Rents first became due. 
But these were mere local or municipal Courts, 
erected by the Corporations of those towns, in vir- 
tue of the authority granted them by their charters. 
Governor Carteret, indeed, sought to extend their 
jurisdiction and to strengthen their arm, by author- 



1 Whitehead's East Jersey, 52, 53. Shrewsbury and Middletown. But 

2 Courts of Justice were also insti- the twelve Patentees of Navesink 
tuted in Monmouth as early as 1667, were not long permitted by the Lords 
under the patent granted by Colonel Proprietors, to exercise the powers 
Nichols, " Governor under his royal thus conferred upon them by his 
highness the Duke of York of all his royal highness's governor ; and the 
territories in America." These Courts Courts thus erected soon ceased to 
held their sessions first at Portland exist. — Proceedings of N. J. Hist. 
Point, and afterwards alternately at Soc, vol. i. p. 167. 



COUNTY COURTS. 7 

izing them to try all causes brought before them, 
although the parties might come from beyond the 
limits of their respective towns. This, however, 
was a questionable exercise of power ; and, at all 
events, these Courts proved themselves entirely too 
feeble to quell the disturbances and repress the dis- 
orders that ensued. 1 For the first, and I may add, 
the last time in the history of New Jersey, the laws 
were silent, and anarchy reigned supreme. 

But in 1675, when the next Assembly met, one 
of the very first acts that was passed provided for the 
establishment and maintenance of Courts of Justice 
throughout the Province. 2 There was to be, in the 
first place, a monthly Court of small causes for the 
trial of all matters under forty shillings. This 
Court was to be held on the first Wednesday of 
every month, in each town of the Province, by two 
or three persons, to be chosen by the people, of 
whom a Justice of the Peace was to be one. 3 Then, 
there were the County Courts or Courts of Sessions, 
to be held twice a year in every county, 4 the Judges 



1 Whitehead's East Jersey, 55. no doubt, was the origin of that stay 

2 Grants and Concessions, p. 96. of execution which has always been 

3 The officers of the Court were a distinguishing feature in our Courts 
to be a clerk and a messenger, and for the trial of small causes. 

upon the recovery of a debt, if the 4 No formal division of the Province 

defendant were a poor man, the Court into counties had yet been made, but 

was empowered to give " time and it was provided in the act constituting 

space for the payment thereof." This, Courts of Sessions, that Bergen and 



8 COURT OF ASSIZE. 

of which were also to be elected out of the county 
to which the Court belonged. In these Courts 
were directed to be tried " all causes actionable," 
terms certainly very comprehensive, and which 
would seem to have conferred unlimited jurisdic- 
tion. No appeals were to be granted from their 
judgments under the sum of twenty pounds, " ex- 
cept to the Bench, or to the Court of Chancery." 
By the " Bench" was meant, undoubtedly, the Court 
of Assize, which was a Provincial Court, directed 
to be held once a year in the town of Woodbridge, 
or where the Governor and Council should ap- 
point. This was the Supreme Court of the Pro- 
vince ; but from it appeals would lie to the Govern- 
or and Council, and from them in the last resort to 
the king. 

Such were the first Courts established in the 
Province by act of Assembly ; and they are inter- 
esting from the fact, that in them we may trace the 
germ of our present admirable judicial system. 
The monthly Courts of small causes was the ori- 
ginal of our Justice's Court, that most useful and 
convenient tribunal, by which justice is literally 
brought home to every man's door, and controver- 



the adjacent plantations should be taway a third ; and the two towns of 
one county ; Elizabethtown and New- Navesink a fourth county, 
ark another ; Woodbridge and Pisca- 



COURTS OF SMALL CAUSES. g 

sies of small moment adjusted, without the expense 
and delay incident to the proceedings of our higher 
Courts. It was, in fact, the revival, in an improved 
form, of those ancient common law Courts of infe- 
rior jurisdiction, which had long before fallen into 
disuse in England, and the loss of which has been 
felt and lamented to the present day. 1 Such were 
the Hundred Courts, and the County Courts of the 
Anglo Saxons, the beneficent fruits of the genius of 
the great Alfred. Such was the Court of Piepoudre, 
so called, as we are told, from the dusty feet of the 
suitors; or, as Sir Edward Coke fancifully sup- 
poses, because justice was administered in them as 
speedily as dust falls from the feet. 2 We are so fa- 



1 As early as the reign of Henry the 
Seventh, these inferior local tribunals 
had in a great measure gone into dis- 
use in England. But, as Mr. Hallam 
observes, " though the reference of 
every legal question, however insigni- 
ficant, to the Courts above, must have 
been inconvenient and expensive in a 
still greater degree than at present, it 
had doubtless a powerful tendency to 
knit together the different parts of 
England, to check the influence of 
feudality and clanship, to make the 
inhabitants of distant counties better 
acquainted with the capital city, and 
more accustomed to the course of go- 
vernment, and to impair the spirit of 
provincial patriotism and animosity." 
—Hallam's Constitutional Hist, of 
England, I. 5. 



Of late, however, efforts have been 
made in England to supply the place 
of these ancient Courts. Public atten- 
tion was called to the subject by Lord 
Brougham, in his speech upon Local 
Courts delivered in the House of Com- 
mons in 1830. And the evils which 
he complained of have in some mea- 
sure been remedied by the statute of 
3 and 4 William IV, cap. 42, which, 
in cases where the debt or demand 
does not exceed twenty pounds, au- 
thorizes a trial to be had before the 
sheriff instead of a judge at Nisi Pri- 
us. — See Lord Brougham's Speeches, 
II. 489. 

*3 Black Com., 32; 4 Co. Ins., 
272. 



10 JUSTICES ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE. 

miliar with these humble tribunals, they are so 
noiseless and unobtrusive in their operations, that 
we are apt to be insensible to their benefits ; nor 
do we realize the extent to which they have cheap- 
ened justice, and made law, instead of being the 
" patrimony of the rich," " the inheritance of the 
poor." 1 The judges of these monthly Courts, we 
have seen, were chosen by the people. In provid- 
ing therefore for the election of Justices of the 
Peace, under our new Constitution, we seem to be 
returning more nearly to this primitive model of a 
Court for the trial of small causes. In the county 
Courts or Courts of Sessions, exercising as they 
did both civil and criminal jurisdiction, we see sha- 
dowed forth our present Courts of Common Pleas 
and Quarter Sessions. The Court of Assize cor- 
responded with our Supreme Court, while the Go- 
vernor and Council were at that early day, what 



1 By a return made to the House of was not much out of the general 

Commons in 1827, it was ascertained course. The costs of each of these 

that for a period of two years and a verdicts was estimated to have been 

half, there had been 93,000 affidavits not less than £80. In New Jersey 

of debt filed in the King's Bench and all these cases, where the amount 

Common Pleas, and of these, 29,800, or in controversy does not exceed £20, 

about one-third, were for sums under or $100, would fall within the juris- 

£20. Of fifty verdicts taken at one diction of our Courts for the trial of 

of the assizes in England some years small causes, and to compel parties to 

ago, it was found that their average resort to the higher Courts would in 

amount was something less than £14; very many instances amount to a de- 

and it was stated upon high authority nial of justice, 
in the House of Commons, that this 



EAST JERSEY DIVIDED INTO COUNTIES. J| 

they have continued to be ever since, until the 
adoption of our new Constitution, the highest Court 
of Appeals in the Province. The existence of a 
Court of Chancery as a separate and distinct tribu- 
nal was also recognized, showing plainly that it was 
from the wells of English law that our fathers 
drew their ideas of jurisprudence. 

These Courts were somewhat modified in 1682, 
after the transfer of East Jersey to the twenty-four 
Proprietors. 1 In the Court for the trial of small 
causes, either party was to be at liberty to demand 
a jury. So sacred was that mode of trial deemed, 
that no man was to be denied the benefit of it, even 
in the smallest matter. East Jersey was divided 
into four Counties, Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, and 
Monmouth ; and the County Courts were directed 
to be held four times a year in each County. 3 The 



1 Grants and Concessions, p. 229. Townships of Middletown, Shrews- 

2 It was not until 1692, that Coun- bury, and Freehold. — Grants and Con- 
ties were first subdivided into Town- cessions, p. 328. 

ships. In Bergen but one Township 3 In Essex they were to be held al- 
was created, called Hackensack, be- temately, at Newark and Elizabeth- 
sides which there was the " Corpora- town ; in Middlesex, at Woodbridge 
tion Town " of Bergen. Essex was and Piscataway ; in Monmouth, at 
divided into three Townships ; the Middletown and Shrewsbury, 
first was called Aquackanick and JYew Middlesex, however, was soon di- 
Barbadoes, the second Newark, and vided, the County of Somerset being 
the third Elizabeth town. Middlesex formed out of a portion of it, in 1688. 
was divided into the " Corporation The reason assigned for the division 
Town " of Woodbridge, and the is a whimsical one. It was because 
Townships of Perth Amboy and Pis- the uppermost part of Raritan River 
cataway; and Monmouth into the was settled by persons who, in the 



12 COURT OF COMMON RIGHT. 

Judges were to consist of the Justices of the Peace 
in the respective Counties, or three of them at the 
least. A High Sheriff in each County was now 
for the first time provided for, and all process out 
of the County Courts was to be directed to him. 
A change, too, was made in the name of the Su- 
preme Court. Instead of the Court of Assize, it 
was to be called the Court of Common Right. 
Heretofore, the titles of all the judicial tribunals in 
the Province had been borrowed from the English 
Courts, and were familiar to the Common Law. 
But a Court of Common Right was something en- 
tirely new. The name first occurs in the instruc- 
tions of Robert Barclay and other Proprietors to 
the Deputy Governor, Gawen Lawrie ; " We do 
require this one thing concerning the Court of 
Common Right, that it be always held at our Town 
of Perth, if it be possible." 1 Now Robert Bar- 
clay and many of the other Proprietors, as is well 
known, were Scotchmen ; and when we add the 
important fact, t)iat this Court, under its new or- 
ganization, was empowered to try and determine 

husbandry of their land, were forced was divided from the other inhabit- 

upon quite different ways and methods ants of the said County — Grants and 

from the other farmers and inhabitants Concessions, p. 305. A more obvi- 

of the County of Middlesex, because ous reason would seem to have been 

of the frequent floods that carried the inconvenient size of the County, 

away the fences on their meadows, ' Grants and Concessions, p. 199. 
and so by consequence their interest 



COURT OF COMMON RIGHT. 13 

causes in Equity as well as at Common Law, we 
shall have no difficulty in discerning the influence 
of those who were more familiar with Scottish 
than with English jurisprudence. For in Scotland, 
as most of you are doubtless aware, a Court of 
Equity, as distinct from a Court of Law, and under 
the administration of different Judges, has never 
formed a part of their system. This Court of 
Common Right was to consist of " twelve mem- 
bers, or six at the least," and was to be held four 
times a year, and at Elizabethtown, 1 notwithstand- 
ing the injunction contained in the instructions of 
the Proprietors that it should be held at Perth. 
The ancient Borough of Elizabethtown, named 
after the "fashionable and kind-hearted" Lady 
Carteret, and which had so long enjoyed the dis- 
tinction of being the capital of the Province, was 
not inclined, without a struggle, to surrender its 
dignity in favor of the new town named in honor 
of the Earl of Perth, and which, however glorious 
might be its future, then existed only in imagina- 
tion. It was not until 1686, that the Court was 
directed to be held at Perth Amboy, the inhabitants 
of the Province having by that time become sensi- 
ble, as the act declared, " that Amboy was more 

1 Grants and Concessions, p. 232. 



14 COURT OF COMMON RIGHT. 

conveniently situated, near the centre of the Pro- 
vince, the most encouraging place for trade and 
traffic by sea and land, and which would occasion 
great concourse of people." * It was, as we have 
said, to be a Court of Equity as well as of Com- 
mon Law. But it was subsequently stripped of its 
Equity powers. For in 1695, we find the General 
Assembly in a solemn act declaring what were 
" the rights and privileges of His Majesty's sub- 
jects inhabiting within the Province of East New 
Jersey," enacting, among other things, that the 
Judges of the Court of Common Right should not 
be Judges of the High Court of Chancery. This, 
we may remark, is the only instance to be found in 
the history of our judicial system, in which the 
powers of an Equity and a Common Law Court 
have ever been blended in the same tribunal. And 
the experiment does not appear to have been a suc- 
cessful one. 

So much for the Courts of East Jersey, under 
its Proprietary government. And now, it may be 
asked, what were the laws which these Courts were 
called upon to administer, and in what way were 
their proceedings regulated ? And the first thing 

•Grants and Concessions, p. 293. for the object of their solicitude a des- 
" This Town was a favorite project of tiny which has never been realized." 
the Proprietaries, and they prefigured — Whitehead's East Jersey, 108. 



EARLY LAWS. 



15 



which strikes our attention is, how very few in 
number, and how very simple in their provisions, 
the early legislative enactments were. For exam- 
ple, laws were passed for the erection of Courts of 
Justice, designating their titles, defining their juris- 
diction, and prescribing the number of Judges ; but 
as to the manner in which their business was to be 
conducted, by what rules they were to be govern- 
ed, and how their sentences were to be enforced, 
nothing whatever was said. An act of Assembly 
required that there should be a High Sheriff in 
every County, but it was silent as to his powers 
and duties. In the same manner provision is made 
for Grand Juries, who were to present all offences 
against law ; but we have not a word as to the per- 
sons of whom they are to be composed, or the 
authority by which they are to be convened, or as 
to their methods of procedure. These laws stand- 
ing alone, unexplained and uninterpreted, would not 
merely have been a dead letter, but a perfect enig- 
ma. But by whom were they to be unfolded, and 
as it were deciphered ? Were the Judges to do it 
at their discretion ? Was the secret to lie in the 
breast of the Court ? No : as well have had no laws. 
But, be it remembered, our fathers brought with 
them from England the common law. It was their 
birthright, their inheritance ; and they transplant- 



16 COMMON LAW. 

ed it along with themselves to this congenial soil, 
where it at once took root and flourished. Its am- 
ple folds covered all the nakedness of our primitive 
enactments. Its abundant resources supplied all 
their deficiencies. It furnished the key with which 
to unlock the hidden meaning of the statute. 

And they brought with them, too, the common 
law, not as it was after the Norman Conquest, bur- 
dened with the oppressive features of the feudal 
system ; not as it existed under the Tudors, when 
the prerogatives of the crown lorded it over the 
rights of the people ; or in the reigns of James and 
Charles the First, with its star-chamber and high 
commission Court, its forced loans and benevolen- 
ces, its ship-money and arbitrary imprisonment ; 
but the common law, in the state to which it was 
brought during the reign of the second Charles, 
purified from the corruptions and redeemed from 
the abuses which long ages of tyranny and misrule 
had engrafted upon it. For it was in the reign of 
Charles the Second, stained though it was with 
blood and crime, and at the very period of the first 
settlement of New Jersey, that the common law of 
England reached its highest state of vigor and per- 
fection. 1 It was then that the habeas corpus act, and 

'3 Black. Com. The opinion ex- reign of Charles II, "wicked, san- 
pressed by Blackstone, that in the guinary, and turbulent as it was, the 



COMMON LAW. 



17 



the act abolishing feudal tenures, were passed, acts 
which, as it has been said, formed a second magna 
charta, more beneficial and efficacious than that of 
Runnymeade. That but pruned the luxuriance of 
feudal tenures, and lopped off some of their excres- 
cences; whereas the act of 12th Charles II laid 
the axe at their very root. Magna charta but de- 
clared that no man should be unlawfully imprison- 
ed ; the habeas corpus act furnished him with the 
means of obtaining instant relief from such impris- 
onment. 1 The Revolution of 1688 gave no addi- 
tional security to the private rights and personal 
liberties of Englishmen. It was itself but one of 



constitution of England had arrived to 
its full vigor, and the true balance be- 
tween liberty and prerogative was 
happily established by law," may at 
first view appear paradoxical, and I 
am aware that its correctness has 
been frequently called in question. 
But it is substantially confirmed by 
Hallam, who, upon a question of this 
kind, must be deemed the very high- 
est authority. After reviewing the 
prominent events of this reign, he ob- 
serves : " It may seem rather an ex- 
traordinary position, after the last 
chapters, yet is it strictly true, that 
the fundamental privileges of the sub- 
ject were less invaded, the preroga- 
tive swerved into fewer excesses, du- 
ring the reign of Charles II, than 
perhaps in any former period of equal 
length. Thanks to the patriot ener- 
gies of Selden and Eliot, of Pym and 



Hampden, the constitutional bounda- 
ries of royal power had been so well 
established that no minister was dar- 
ing enough to attempt any flagrant 
and general violation of them." — 
Hallam 's Constitutional Hist, of Eng- 
land, vol. iii. chap. 1. 

It must be remembered, too, that it 
was in the reign of Charles II, that a 
Hale presided in the Court of King's 
Bench, and a Nottingham sat upon 
,the Woolsack. 

1 The " Statute of Distributions," 
making a most equitable disposition 
of personal property in case of intes- 
tacy, was also passed in this reign ; 
and that " most important and benefi- 
cial piece of juridical legislation,". the 
famous " Statute of Frauds," of which 
Lord Nottinghaln used to say, " that 
every line of it was worth a subsidy." 



18 CONCESSIONS OF BERKLEY AND CARTERET. 

the fruits of those glorious principles, the triumph 
of which had already been achieved, and which 
were cheaply purchased by all the blood that had 
been shed, and all the follies and crimes that had 
been engendered, by the great Rebellion. 

But besides the Common Law, which formed the 
basis of our jurisprudence and regulated the pro- 
ceedings of our Courts, there were the Concessions 
of the first Proprietors, Berkley and Carteret. 
These formed the first Constitution of New Jer- 
sey. I need scarcely tell you it was a free Consti- 
tution ; the only kind of Constitution under which 
the people of New Jersey have ever been willing 
to live. It proclaimed religious liberty in its fullest 
extent. " No man shall be molested, disquieted, or 
called in question, for any difference of opinion or 
practice in matters of religion, throughout the Pro- 
vince." It proclaimed freedom from taxation with- 
out the consent of the people. " No tax, custom, 
or duty whatsoever, upon any color or pretence, 
shall be imposed upon the inhabitants of the said 
Province, but by the authority of the General As- 
sembly." In short, it guarantied complete security 
of person and property, under laws to be enacted 
by an Assembly composed of the Governor and 
Council, and at least an equal number of the rep- 



CONCESSIONS OF BERKLEY AND CARTERET. 19 

resentatives of the people. 1 Strange, that a Con- 
stitution so free should have emanated from the 
profligate courtiers of Charles the Second ; men 
who were wont to scoff at the rights of the people, 
and who loathed the very name of liberty ! It was 
in truth, as has been well remarked, " the homage 
paid by avarice to freedom." New Jersey was at 
that time a mere wilderness, tenanted only by a 
few wandering tribes of savages. To make it of 
any value to its Proprietors, it was absolutely ne- 
cessary that it should be peopled ; and a speedy 
settlement could alone insure a quick return. It 
had no mines of gold or silver to invite the cupidi- 
ty of adventurers. Other lands more fair and fer- 
tile, and equally accessible, were open to the 
emigrant. Hence, settlers were to be allured by 
tempting offers of the largest liberty. The Con- 
cessions were published and circulated both in 
England and throughout the Colonies. Emissaries 
were sent to New England to proclaim, that be- 
yond the Hudson was to be found a safer and a se- 
curer asylum for freedom ; and Puritans were soon 
seen flocking to the banks of the Passaic and the 
Raritan. 

Something may perhaps be expected as to the 

1 Grants and Concessions, p. 12-26. 



20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COURTS. 

state of the legal profession under the Proprietary 
Government, and of those who figured on the Bench 
or at the Bar. Alas, that the materials for such a 
work are so few, and that each successive year but 
adds to the difficulty of rescuing from oblivion the 
memorials of those early days ! But were the 
means of information more ample, they would per- 
haps prove more curious than useful, and would 
contribute rather to our entertainment than our in- 
struction. The proceedings of the Courts were 
marked by the utmost simplicity, and by an almost 
entire absence of that ceremony and parade which 
distinguished them during the Colonial government, 
when the judges of the higher Courts, clad in their 
gorgeous robes, 1 affected a degree of state, which 
would have been as repugnant to the severe tastes 
of those who lived under the proprietary rule, as to 
the republican notions of our own day. The pure 
and excellent Thomas Olive, sometime Governor 
of West Jersey, was in the habit of dispensing jus- 
tice " sitting," says the historian, " on the stumps 



1 The costume worn by the judges with black silk bags. In summer 

prior to the Revolution, was probably black silk gowns were worn. The 

assumed by them immediately after lawyers also wore black silk gowns, 

the Surrender, when they were first and sometimes bands and bags, 

appointed by royal authority. It con- These official robes were resumed to 

sisted of scarlet robes with deep some extent after the Revolution, 

facings, and cuffs of black velvet ; but towards the close of the last cen- 

bands, and powdered wigs, adorned tury they fell into disuse. 



BUSINESS OF THE COURTS. 



21 



in his meadows." 1 What a striking and interesting 
picture does this present of those primeval times ! 
How emblematic, as it were, of heaven-descended 
justice, newly alighted upon this spot, where the 
forest had just been felled and the wilderness sub- 
dued ! 

Nor was the business of the Courts — if we may 
judge from the few cases which have been handed 
down to us — of much interest or importance. Pet- 
ty disputes and frivolous controversies would seem 
to have occupied much of their time. May I be 
pardoned for saying, that — what shall I call it — a 
fondness for litigation, or a love of law, or a desire 
to be in and about courts of justice, has always 
formed a somewhat prominent trait in the charac- 
ter of the people of New Jersey. But in this per- 
haps they are not peculiar. At a later period in 
our history, Mr. Burke, speaking of the Colonies 
generally, declared in the House of Commons, that 
in no country in the world was the law so general 
a study, and that every man who was able to read 
endeavored to obtain some smattering in that sci- 
ence. He had been told, he said, by an eminent 
bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after 
tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as 

1 Smith's N. J., 209. 



22 ABSENCE OF LAWYERS. 

those on the law exported to the Colonies. And it 
was to this disposition that he ascribed the fact, 
that while in other countries the people were in 
the habit of judging of an ill principle only by an 
actual grievance, here they anticipated the evil, and 
judged of the pressure of the grievance by the bad- 
ness of the principle, auguring misgovernment at a 
distance, and snuffing the approach of tyranny in 
every tainted breeze. 1 

But we are not from this to suppose, that at the 
early period of which we are now speaking, those 
who were lawyers by profession composed a very 
large class of the community. On the contrary, if 
we may believe Oldmixon, there was a time when 
New Jersey was deemed worthy the name of Para- 
dise, because, in addition to its natural advantages, 
it was blessed by the absence of lawyers, physi- 
cians, and parsons. 2 And, as if for the purpose of 

1 Speech on Conciliation with Ame- healthy ; long may it s» continue, 

rica. Burke's Works, II. 36. " This and never have occasion for the 

study," he adds, " renders men acute, tongue of the one nor the pen of the 

inquisitive, dextrous, prompt in at- other, both equally destructive to 

tack, ready in defence, full of re- men's estates and lives." This little 

sources." work was first published in 1698, and 

a 01dmixon's Brit. Empire, I. 144. is dedicated to "Friend William 

Gabriel Thomas too, in his Histo- Penn." The author terms it a " plain 

rical and Geographical Account of and peasant-like piece," and assures 

Pennsylvania and West New Jersey, us he was prompted to write it by 

thus discourses irreverently of the " no plot in his pate, or deep design," 

Profession : " Of Lawyers and Phy- an assurance which no one who reads 

sicians I shall say nothing, because it will be disposed to question, 
this country is very peaceable and 



INCREASE OF LAWYERS. 



23 



perpetuating this blissful state of things, at least so 
far as lawyers were concerned, the Fundamental 
Constitutions of the twenty-four proprietors of East 
Jersey provided, that in all Courts, persons of all 
persuasions, might freely appear in their own way, 
and there plead their own causes themselves, or if 
unable, by their friends ; and that no person should 
be allowed to take money for pleading or advice in 
such cases. 1 But this happy exemption was not of 
long continuance. Lawyers, as well as parsons 
and physicians, soon found their way into this 
Eden. For in 1694, we find an act of Assembly 
for the regulation of Attornies at Law within the 
Province, and which prohibited Justices of the 
Peace, Sheriffs, and Clerks of the Courts, from 
acting as Attornies under the penalty of twenty 
pounds. 2 And in 1698, Governor Basse was in- 
structed to procure the passage of a law, by which 
no Attorney or other person should be suffered to 
practice or plead for fee or hire in any Court of 
Judicature, unless he had been regularly admitted 
to practice by license from the Governor. 3 In fact, 
there existed in the Province of East Jersey, at a 
very early day, a most prolific source of strife and 
litigation, and one that called loudly for the ser- 

1 Grants and Concessions, p. 153. J Ibid, p. 223. 

» Ibid, p. 343. 



24 COURTS OF WEST JERSEY. 

vices of lawyers. I allude to the conflicting claims 
of those who held lands under grants from the In- 
dians, and those who deduced their titles from the 
Proprietors. The agitation of this controversy in 
1695, shook to their centre the Provincial Courts, 
and fifty years later, was the subject of that famous 
bill in Chancery, of which I shall have occasion 
hereafter to speak, and in which is embodied so 
much of the early history of our State. 

Thus far we have spoken only of the Courts of 
Justice in East Jersey. Those of West Jersey, 
under its Proprietary Government, will now claim 
our attention. They consisted, in the first place, of 
a Court for small causes, held by a single Justice of 
the Peace, having jurisdiction only in actions of 
debt under forty shillings, with a right of appeal to 
the County Court. 1 County Courts, or Courts of 
Sessions, as they were called, were first established 
by act of Assembly for Burlington and Salem in 
1682, 2 and were extended in 1693 to the newly 
erected county of Cape May. 3 They were to be 
held four times a year by the Justices of the Peace 
in each county. They seem to have had unlimited 
jurisdiction in all cases civil and criminal, with this 
single exception, that they could not try offences 

1 Grants and Concessions, p. 509. 3 Ibid, p. 514. 

2 Ibid, p. 448. 



COURTS OF WEST JERSEY. 25 

of a capita] nature. They were the great Courts 
of the Province, and for a long time there was no 
appeal from their decisions. But in 1693, 1 a Su- 
preme Court of Appeals was erected, consisting 
of one or more of the Justices of each county, and 
one or more of the Governor's Council for the time 
being, any three of whom, one being of the Coun- 
cil, were to constitute a quorum. This Court, as 
originally organized, was strictly an appellate tri- 
bunal, but in 1699, during the administration of 
Governor Hamilton, its title and constitution un- 
derwent an essential change. 2 It was to be called 
the Provincial Court, and to be composed of three 
Judges to be chosen by the House of Representa- 
tives of the Province, and one or more of the Jus- 
tices of each county, of whom any three of the 
said Justices, in conjunction with two of the said 
Judges, were to be a quorum. It was to be held 
twice a year in each county, to have original as 
well as appellate jurisdiction, and when the matter 
in controversy amounted to twenty pounds, there 
was to be an appeal from its judgments to the Ge- 
neral Assembly. By an act passed in 1700, it was 
made the duty of the Sheriff of each county, to 
meet the Provincial Judges and other officers, when 
riding the circuit, at the verge of his county, and to 

1 Grants and Concessions, p. 517. * Ibid, p. 563. 



26 COURTS OF WEST JERSEY. 

attend and conduct them safely through his Baili- 
wick to the place of their sitting, or in case of fur- 
ther travel, to the entrance of the next county, the 
Sheriff of which was likewise to receive and .con- 
duct them in manner aforesaid. 1 In 1693, a Court 
of Oyer and Terminer was established for the trial 
of capital crimes, to be composed of a Judge ap- 
pointed by the Governor and Council, assisted by 
two or more Justices of the county where the crime 
was committed. 2 And it is an interesting fact, that 
up to this period, there was really no tribunal in 
West Jersey competent to try offences of a capital 
nature. 3 How strongly does this remind us of that 
feature in the code of the great lawgiver of Athens, 
by which no provision was made for the punish- 
ment of parricide, from an unwillingness to suppose 
that a crime so abhorrent to nature would ever 
be committed. So much for the Courts of Justice 
in West Jersey. I cannot find any traces of a 



1 Grants and Concessions, p. 572. the punishment of death was pre- 
This practice of meeting the Judges scribed. But it was provided, that 
when riding the Circuit, at the verge whenever a person should be found 
of the county, and escorting them to guilty of murder or treason, the sen- 
the place where the Courts were held, tence and way of execution were to 
continued to prevail until many years be left to the General Assembly to 
after the Revolution. determine as they in the wisdom 

2 Ibid, p. 520. of the Lord should judge meet and 

3 Properly speaking, there were no expedient. — Grants and Concessions, 
capital offences in West Jersey, that p. 404. 

is, there were no crimes for which 



WEST JERSEY CONCESSIONS. 27 

Court of Chancery in that Province under the Pro- 
prietary Government. In so primitive a state of so- 
ciety there could hardly have existed any necessity 
for such a tribunal, and it is not improbable, that 
the Quaker settlers in their simplicity may not 
have been aware of the distinction between Courts 
of law and of equity. Law was probably adminis- 
tered in all their Courts upon very equitable princi- 
ples. Its rigor was mitigated, and its severe rules 
relaxed, without the assistance of a Court of Chan- 
cery. 

Reference has been made to the Concessions of 
Berkley and Carteret. But the Concessions of the 
Proprietors of West Jersey were still more liberal. 
A more beautiful fabric of free government was 
never reared. It should be for ever embalmed in 
the memory of Jerseymen. 

" No man nor number of men upon earth," such 
is its language, " have power or authority to rule 
over men's consciences in religious matters : there- 
fore it is agreed and ordained, that no person or 
persons whatsoever within the said Province, shall 
at any time hereafter, in any way or upon any pre- 
tence whatsoever, be called in question, or in the 
least punished or hurt, either in person, privilege, or 
estate, for the sake of his opinion, judgment, faith, 
or worship, in matters of religion." Never was 



28 WEST JERSEY CONCESSIONS. 

there a more comprehensive act of religious tolera- 
tion ; and never was it violated either in its letter 
or its spirit. That could be said of the Quakers of 
New Jersey, which could not be said of the Puri- 
tans of New England, " they had suffered persecu- 
tion and had learned mercy." 

No tax, custom, subsidy, assessment, or any 
other duty whatever, was, upon any color or pre- 
tence, how specious soever, to be imposed upon 
the inhabitants of the Province, without the con- 
sent and authority of the General Assembly. It 
would seem as if, with prophetic spirit, they had 
foreseen the very form in which tyranny would as- 
sail them. So dear to them was the right of trial 
by jury, that their language in relation to it, almost 
savors of refinement and borders upon excess. 
The Justices were to sit with the twelve men 
of the neighborhood, to assist them in matters 
of law, and to pronounce such judgment as they 
should receive from the twelve men, in whom 
alone, it was declared, the judgment resided ; and 
in case of the neglect or refusal of the Justices to 
pronounce such judgment, then one of the twelve, 
by consent of the rest, was to pronounce their own 
judgment as the Justices should have done ; lan- 
guage prompted, no doubt, by the bitter recollec- 
tion of the way in which the rights of juries had 



WEST JERSEY CONCESSIONS. 



29 



so often been trampled upon in England by over- 
bearing Judges. 1 Members of Assembly were to 
be chosen by ballot; to receive instructions at 



1 Penn himself, whose name is af- 
fixed to these Concessions, and who 
probably had a principal hand in fram- 
ing them, must have had a vivid re- 
membrance of his own trial, which 
had taken place but a few years be- 
fore. He and William Mead were 
tried at the Old Bailey in 1760, upon 
an indictment for a tumultuous as- 
sembly. We have a full account of 
this trial, written by themselves, in 
Hargrave's edition of the State Tri- 
als, and some of the incidents con- 
nected with it may perhaps account 
for the extreme solicitude shown in 
the Concessions to guard against in- 
vasion the rights of Juries. It may 
not be amiss, therefore, to advert to a 
few of them, although it may swell 
this note to an inconvenient size. 

When the prisoners were brought 
to the Bar, one of the officers took 
their hats off. " Sirrah," exclaimed 
the Mayor, addressing the officer, 
" who bid you put off their hats ? 
Put them on again." Their hats 
were accordingly put on again by the 
officer, and then the Recorder fined 
them forty marks apiece for contempt, 
in wearing their hats in the King's 
Court. When the Jury first returned 
into Court, they had not agreed upon 
their verdict ; eight were for convict- 
ing and four for acquitting. The 
Court, after threatening and abusing 
them, sent them out again. They 
then returned with the following ver- 
dict: " Guilty of speaking in Grace- 



church-street." Court — " Is that all 1" 
Foreman — " That is all I have in 
commission." Recorder — " You had 
as good say nothing." After another 
volley of abuse, they were again sent 
out, and soon returned again, finding 
Penn guilty of speaking or preaching 
in Gracechurch-street, and Mead not 
guilty. Thereupon the rage of the 
Mayor and Recorder knew no bounds. 
" You are a Foreman indeed," said 
the Mayor, addressing him ; " I 
thought you had understood your 
place better." " We will have a 
verdict," said the Recorder, " by the 
help of God, or you shall starve for 
it." " You are Englishmen," said 
Penn, looking upon the Jury; " mind 
your privilege, give not away your 
right." The Jury were kept out all 
night, without meat, drink, fire, or 
any other accommodation ; but when 
brought into Court next day, they 
still adhered to their verdict. The 
Mayor, addressing Bushel, one of the 
Jury, said, " You are a factious fel- 
low, I'll take a course with you." 
Bushel — " I have done according to 
my conscience." Mayor — " That con- 
science of yours would cut my throat." 
Bushel — " No, my Lord, it never 
shall." Mayor — " But I will cut 
yours as soon as I can." Penn — " I 
desire to ask the Recorder a question. 
Do you allow of the verdict given of 
William Mead V Recorder — " It 
cannot be a verdict, because you are 
indicted for a conspiracy, and one 



30 



WEST JERSEY CONCESSIONS. 



large from those who sent them ; and to covenant 
and oblige themselves to be faithful to their con- 
stituents by indentures under their hand and seal. 
They were to receive for their services a shilling a 
day, that thereby they might be known to be the 
servants of the people. Courts were to be public 
and open, that all the inhabitants of the Province 
might freely come into them, that so justice might 
not be done in a corner. 

These Concessions were declared to be their 
common law, their great charter ; they were to be 



being found guilty and not the other, 
it cannot be a verdict." Penn — " If 
not guilty be not a verdict, you make 
of the Jury and magna charta a mere 
nose of wax." The Recorder said it 
would never be well with them till 
they had something like the Spanish 
Inquisition in England. At last, af- 
ter being kept out two nights and a 
day, the Jury returned with a verdict 
of not guilty. Recorder, addressing 
the Jury — " God keep my life out of 
your hands ; but for this the Court 
fines you forty marks a man, and im- 
prisonment till paid." Penn then de- 
manded his liberty. 'Mayor — " No, 
you are in for your fines." Penn — 
" Fine, for what 1" Mayor — " For 
contempt of Court." Penn was pro- 
ceeding to remonstrate against this, 
when the Recorder said, " Take him 
away — take him away — take him out 
of the Court." Penn — " I can never 
urge the Fundamental Laws of Eng- 
land, but you cry, ' Take him away — 



take him away.' But it is no won- 
der, since the Spanish Inquisition has 
so great a place in the Recorder's 
heart." The Jury, as well as the Pri- 
soners, were then sent to Newgate for 
the non-payment of their fines. Bush- 
el, however, one of the Jurors, sued 
out his writ of Habeas Corpus return- 
able to the Court of Common Pleas, 
and was discharged ; Lord Chief Jus- 
tice Vaughan, upon that occasion, de- 
livering a most elaborate and master- 
ly argument, in vindication of the 
right of a Jury to find a general ver- 
dict against the direction of the Court. 
" To Edward Bushel," said Lord Ers- 
kine, in his speech in defence of the 
Dean of St. Asaph, " are we almost 
as much indebted as to Mr. Hamp- 
den, who brought the case of ship- 
money before the Court of Exche- 
quer." — Er shine's Speeches, II. 117. 
See Bushel's Case, Vaughan's Hep. p. 
135-158. 



WEST JERSEY CONCESSIONS. 



31 



read at the beginning and the dissolving of every 
General free Assembly ; and they were also direct- 
ed to be writ on fair tables, in every Hall of Justice 
in the Province, and read by the Magistrates in 
solemn manner four times every year in the pre- 
sence of the people, — "it being intended and re- 
solved, by the help of the Lord and these our Con- 
cessions, that every person inhabiting the said 
Province shall, as far as in us lies, be free from 
oppression and slavery." 1 Precious words ! And 
how should our hearts overflow with gratitude to 
God that now, one hundred and seventy years 
since this pious purpose was first announced, we 
live to see it realized. There is not to be found, 
in the whole history of our country, rich as it is in 
interesting scenes, an incident so beautiful, as the 
first settlement of West Jersey by the Quakers. 
" West New Jersey," says Bancroft, " would have 
been a fit home for a Fenelon." 

Nor were the settlers of West Jersey satisfied 
with the mere declaration of their rights and privi- 



1 This was the first essay of Qua- after ages to understand their liberty 

ker legislation, and " entitles," says as men and Christians, that they may 

Grahame, " its authors to no mean not be brought in bondage, but by 

share in the honor of planting civil their own consent ; for we put the 

and religious liberty in America." — power in the people." — See Letter to 

" There," said Penn and some of his Richard Hartshorne, Smith's N. J., 

colleagues, in allusion to these Con- p. 80. 
cessions, " we lay a foundation for 



32 CUSTOMS AT THE HOARKILLS. 

leges. They were always ready to assert and vin- 
dicate them whenever they were questioned or as- 
sailed. Thus, when the agent of the Duke of York 
at the Hoarkills persisted in exacting customs of 
all vessels ascending the Delaware to New Jersey, 
the Quaker settlers remonstrated against it so ear- 
nestly, that the Duke, wearied by their importunity, 
referred the matter to Commissioners. To the 
Commissioners they then addressed themselves, 
and in support of their claim to exemption, deliv- 
ered an argument, couched in the language of in- 
telligent freemen, and breathing the very spirit of 
Anglo-Saxon liberty. 1 

After reciting the grant of New Jersey from the 
King to the Duke of York, and from the Duke to 
Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret, they pro- 
ceed to say : 



1 This argument was prepared by concurred in the presentation of the 
William Penn, George Hutchinson, pleading is undeniable ; and hence it 
and several other coadjutors. Gra- may be fairly presumed that he assist- 
hame says that "like most Quaker ed in its composition. But that he 
productions, it is extremely prolix ;" was the sole author of it, as some of 
but I do not think it is liable to this his modern biographers have insinu- 
objection. I have given all the ma- ated, is rendered extremely improba- 
terial parts of it, making here and ble by its style, in which not the 
there a slight verbal alteration ; and slightest resemblance is discoverable 
I am much deceived with regard to to any of his acknowledged produc- 
es merit, if it may not, both as to tions." — Grahame's Col. Hist., I. p. 
matter and style, challenge a compari- 478, note. The document is preserved 
son with any cotemporary production, at length in Smith's History of New 

Grahame further says : " That Penn Jersey. 



ARGUMENT AGAINST CUSTOMS. 



33 



" Thus, then, we come to buy that moiety 
which belonged to Lord Berkley for a valuable 
consideration ; and in the conveyance he made us, 
powers of government are expressly granted ; for 
that only could have induced us to buy it ; and the 
reason is plain; because to all prudent men the 
government of any place is more inviting than the 
soil. For what is good land without good laws ? 
The better the worse. And if we could not assure 
people of an easy and free and safe government, 
both with respect to their spiritual and worldly 
property — that is, an uninterrupted liberty of con- 
science, and an inviolable possession of their civil 
rights and freedoms by a just and wise government 
— a mere wilderness would be no encouragement ; 
for it were a madness to leave a free, good, and 
improved country, to plant in a wilderness ; and 
there adventure many thousands of pounds to give 
an absolute title to another person to tax us at will 
and pleasure. This single consideration, we hope, 
will excuse our desire of the government ; not as- 
serted for the sake of power but safety ; and that, 
not only for ourselves but for others, that the plan- 
tation might be encouraged. 

" We dispose of part of our interest to several 
hundreds of people, honest and industrious, who 
transport themselves, and with them, such house- 
3 



34 ARGUMENT AGAINST CUSTOMS. 

hold stuff and tools as are requisite for planters to 
have. They land at Delaware Bay, the bounds of 
the country we bought ; the passage God and na- 
ture made to it ; at their arrival they are saluted 
with a demand of custom of five per cent, and 
that, not as the goods may be there worth, but ac- 
cording to the invoice as they cost before shipped 
in England. 

" This is our grievance ; and for this we made 
our application to have speedy redress ; not as a 
burden only with respect to the quantum, or the 
way of levying it, or any circumstances made hard 
by the irregularity of the officers ; but as a wrong. 
For we complain of a wrong done us ; and ask, yet 
with modesty, quo jure ? Tell us the title by what 
right or law are we thus used ? That may a little 
mitigate our pain. Your answer hitherto has been 
that this was a conquered country, and that the 
king being the conqueror has power to make laws, 
raise money, &c; that this power the king has 
vested in the duke, and by that right and sovereign- 
ty the duke demands the customs we complain of. 
But suppose the king were an absolute conqueror 
in the case depending, does his power extend equal- 
ly over his own English people as over the con- 
quered ? Are not they some of the letters that 
make up the word conqueror ? Did Alexander 



ARGUMENT AGAINST CUSTOMS. 35 

conquer alone, or Csesar beat by himself ? No! 
Shall their armies of countrymen and natives lie at 
the same mercy as the vanquished, and be exposed 
to the same will and power with their captive ene- 
mies ? The Norman duke, more a conqueror of 
England by his subjection to our laws and pretence 
to a title by them, than of heraldry by his arms, 
used not the companions of his victory so ill. Na- 
tural right and human prudence oppose such doc- 
trine all the world over ; for what is it but to say 
that people, free by law under their prince at home, 
are at his mercy in the plantations abroad ? We 
could say more, but choose to let it drop. 

" But our case is better yet. For the King's 
grant to the Duke of York is plainly restrictive to 
the laws and government of England. Now the 
constitution and government of England, as we 
humbly conceive, are so far from countenancing 
any such authority, that it is made a fundamental 
in them, that the king of England cannot justly 
take his subjects' goods without their consent. 
This needs no more to be proved than a principle ; 
'tis jus i?idigine, a home-born right, declared to be 
law by divers statutes. To give up this, is to 
change the government, to sell, or rather resign 
ourselves to the will of another, and that for no- 
thing. For under favor, we buy nothing of the 



36 ARGUMENT AGAINST CUSTOMS. 

duke, if not the right of undisturbed colonizing, and 
that as Englishmen, with no diminution, but rather 
expectation of some increase of those freedoms and 
privileges enjoyed in our own country : for the soil 
is none of his ; 'tis the natives' by the jus gentium, 
the law of nations ; and it would be an ill argument 
to convert to Christianity, to expel, instead of pur- 
chasing them, out of those countries. If then the 
country be theirs, it is not the duke's ; he cannot 
sell it : then what have we bought ? To conclude 
this point we humbly say, that we have not lost 
any part of our liberty by leaving our country : for 
we leave not our king nor our government by quit- 
ting our soil ; but we transplant to a place given 
by the same king, with express limitation to erect 
no polity contrary to the same established govern- 
ment, but as near as may be to it ; and that latitude 
bounded by these words, for the good of the adven- 
turer and planter ; which that exaction of custom 
can never be. 

" Custom in all governments in the world is laid 
upon trade, but this upon planting is unprecedented. 
The plain English of the tragedy is this ; we twice 
buy this moiety of New Jersey; first of Lord 
Berkley, and next of the natives ; and for what ? 
The better to mortgage ourselves and posterity to 



ARGUMENT AGAINST CUSTOMS. 37 

the duke's governors, and give them a title to our 
persons and estates that never had any before. 

"Besides, there is no end of this power; for 
since we are by this precedent assessed without 
any law, and thereby excluded our English right of 
common assent to taxes ; what security have we of 
any thing we possess ? We can call nothing our 
own, but are tenants at will, not only for the soil, 
but for all our personal estates. This is to trans- 
plant, not from good to better, but from good to 
bad. This sort of conduct has destroyed govern- 
ment, but never raised one to any true greatness. 

" Lastly, the duke's circumstances, and the peo- 
ple's jealousies considered, we humbly submit, if 
there can be in their opinion, a greater evidence of 
a design to introduce an unlimited government, 
than both to exact such an unterminated tax from 
English planters, and continue it after so many re- 
peated complaints ; and on the contrary, if there 
can be any thing so happy to the duke's present af- 
fairs, as the opportunity he has to free that country 
with his own hand, and to make us all owers of our 
liberty to his favor and justice. So will Englishmen 
here know what to hope for, by the justice and 
kindness he shows to Englishmen there; and all 
men see the just model of his government in New 
York, to be the scheme and draught in little of his 



38 ARGUMENT AGAINST CUSTOMS. 

administration in Old England at large, if the crown 
should ever devolve on his head. 

" The conclusion is this, that for all these rea- 
sons in law, equity, and prudence, you would please 
to second our request to the duke, that like him- 
self, he would void this taxation, and put the coun- 
try in such an English and free condition, that he 
may be as well loved and honored, as feared, by all 
the inhabitants of his territory ; that being great in 
their affections, he may be great by their industry ; 
which will yield him that wealth, that parent of 
power, that he may be as great a prince by pro- 
perty as by title." 

This argument, " worthy," as Grahame says, " of 
the founders of a North American commonwealth," 
was attended, as it deserved to be, with triumphant 
success. The obnoxious custom was renounced, 
and West Jersey became a free and independent 
Province. 1 

1 The Commissioners referred the soon after executed in favor of the re- 
question to Sir William Jones, who presents tives of Sir George Carteret, 
gave it as his opinion, " that as the " Thus," says Grahame, " the whole of 
grant to Berkley and Carteret had New Jersey was promoted at once 
reserved no profit or jurisdiction, the from the condition of a conquered 
legality of the taxes could not be de- country to the rank of a free and in- 
fended." The Duke of York promptly dependent province, and rendered in 
acquiesced in the decision, and by a political theory the adjunct, instead of 
new indenture relinquished all his the mere dependency, of the British 
claims on West Jersey ; and as the empire. The powerful and spirited 
argument was equally applicable to pleading by which this benefit was 
East Jersey, a similar release was gained, derives additional interest 



FIRST PERIOD CONCLUDED. 39 

We have dwelt longer upon this first period of 
our history, than its importance may seem to de- 
mand ; but there is a charm about it which it is dif- 
ficult to resist. There is always more or less of 
romance connected with the infancy of every State. 
What the heroic ages were to Greece ; what the 
period of its first kings was to France, and of its 
Anglo-Saxon monarchs to England ; such to New 
Jersey, is the period which preceded the surrender 
of the government to the crown. It is the twilight 
of our history, and the very indistinctness with 
which objects are then revealed to us, but height- 
ens their interest and leaves room for imagination ; 
and time, while it deepens the shadows which rest 
upon them, but causes them to assume more varied 
and picturesque forms. 2 

We come now to the period of the Surrender. 

from recollection of the conflict then justly imposed on them without their 
subsisting in England between the own consent and the authority of their 
advocates of liberty and the abettors own provincial assembly. The re- 
of arbitrary power. It would not be port of the commissioners and the re- 
easy to point out, in any of the politi- lief that followed, were virtual con- 
cal writings or harangues of which cessions in favor of this principle, 
that period was abundantly prolific, which in an after age was destined to 
a more manly and intrepid exertion obtain a more signal triumph in the 
for the preservation of liberty, than national independence of North Ame- 
we behold in this first successful de- rica."— Grahame's Col. Hist., 479. 
fence of the rights of New Jersey. s For some notice of the principal 
One of the most remarkable features laws that were enacted, both in East 
of the plea which the colonists main- and West Jersey, under the Proprie- 
tained, was the unqualified and deli- tary Government, see Appendix A. 
berate assertion, that no tax could be 



40 SURRENDER OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

The claim of the Proprietors to exercise the pow- 
ers of Government had been for some years ques- 
tioned ; a Quo Warranto was actually depending 
in the Court of King's Bench, the object of which 
was to test its validity ; and the increasing num- 
ber, 1 and conflicting views of the Proprietors, ren- 
dered the possession of such powers of doubtful 
utility. 2 Under these circumstances, an absolute 
and unconditional surrender of them was made to 
the crown ; 3 and Lord Cornbury, the grandson of 
the illustrious Clarendon, and the cousin of Queen 
Anne, was appointed the first Royal Governor of 
the united Provinces of East and West Jersey. Al- 
though, by his Instructions, he was forbidden to 



1 The shares and parts of shares must be remembered, that it was these 
had been so divided and subdivided, very proprietors themselves by whom 
that some of the proprietors owned the surrender was made. — Pitkins' 
but one fortieth part of a forty-eighth U. States, I. 60. 

part of a twenty-fourth share. — Pit- 3 Grants and Concessions, p. 609. 

kins' U. States, I. 64. Although the surrender was in its 

2 Pitkins says that while the New terms absolute and unqualified, yet 
England colonists clung to their char- by the Instructions to Lord Cornbury 
ters as to the ark of their political — which were shown to the proprie- 
safety, in opposition to the claims of tors and acquiesced in by them be- 
the king and parliament, those under fore the surrender was made — it was 
the proprietary governments, and es- provided, that the right and property 
pecially in Pennsylvania, New Jer- of the proprietors to the soil of the 
sey, and Carolina, sought refuge and Province should be confirmed to them, 
protection from the oppression of the together with all such privileges as 
proprietors, under a royal government, were expressed in the conveyances 
However true this may have been in made by the Duke of York, except- 
reference to Pennsylvania and Caro- ing only the right of government. — 
Una, in the ease of New Jersey, it Grants and Concessions, p. 628. 



COMMISSION OF LORD CORNBURY. 



41 



erect any Court or office of judicature not before 
erected or established, without a special order, yet 
by his Commission, full power and authority were 
given to him, with the advice and consent of his 
Council, to erect, constitute, and establish such 
Courts of Judicature in the Province, as should be 
thought fit and necessary for the hearing and de- 
termining of all causes, as well criminal as civil, 
according to law and equity. 1 Similar authority 
was given to all succeeding Governors. Thus, the 
important power of establishing Courts for the ad- 
ministration of justice, which before the Surrender 
had been so jealously reserved both in East and 
West Jersey to the General Assembly, was now 
conferred, without limitation or control, upon the 
Governor and Council. But, as draughts of the 
Commission as well as of the Instructions, were 
submitted to the Proprietors before the Surrender 



1 The Commission and Instructions with signal ability. I have supposed 

to Lord Cornbury, as Mr. Griffith ob- therefore that I might be conferring a 

serves (Law Reg. iv. 1178, note), ought favor upon my professional readers by 

to be prefixed to our Laws, as showing inserting them at large in an appen- 

in what manner the government was dix. It is true they are to be found 

organized and administered, and how in Smith's History of New Jersey, and 

our Courts were constituted prior to Learning and Spicer's Laws, usually 

1776. They were in fact the Consti- called Grants and Concessions ; but 

union of the Colony of New Jersey, both of these works are becoming 

and are well worthy of being preserv- very scarce, and are to be found only 

ed. They were evidently the result in a few libraries. — See Appendix B. 
of much consideration, and are drawn 



42 ORDINANCE OF LORD CORNBURY. 

was consummated, they had no right to complain. 
And it is but fair to say that, whatever abuses of 
authority may have been committed by the Royal 
Governors in reference to other matters, this power 
seems, in every instance, to have been exerted with 
great judgment and discretion. 

It is then to the Ordinances of the Governor and 
Council that we are to look, for the frame and con- 
stitution of our Courts after the Surrender. The 
first Ordinance for the establishment of Courts of 
Judicature in the Province of New Jersey, was that 
of Lord Cornbury in 1704. 1 It is really gratifying 
to be able to find a single redeeming feature in the 
administration of this weak, corrupt, and tyrannical 
man, who disgraced the sovereign whose represen- 
tative he was, and dishonored the noble ancestry 
from which he was sprung. But he is entitled to 
the credit of having laid the foundation of our whole 
judicial sytem ; and of having laid it well. True, 
the materials for such a work were found in the 
several Courts which existed under the Proprietary 
Government, and of which we have already spoken : 
but he reduced them to order, and gave them 
shape, and beauty, and proportion. All that has 
been done from that day to this, has been but to 

1 Appendix C. 



ORDINANCE OF LORD CORNBURY. 43 

fill up, as it were, the outline which he sketched ; 
to add some additional apartments to the judicial 
edifice which he constructed. 

He gave to Justices of the Peace cognizance in 
all cases of debt and trespass to the value of forty 
shillings, with the right of appeal to the Court of 
Sessions where the sum in controversy was over 
twenty shillings. 

He ordained that there should be a Court of 
Common Pleas kept and holden in every County 
of the Province, at the place where the General 
Courts of Sessions were held, and to begin imme- 
diately after the Sessions had ended, with power to 
hear and determine all actions, triable at Common 
Law, of what nature or kind soever ; subject to a 
removal to the Supreme Court, either before or af- 
ter judgment, where the matter in dispute exceeded 
ten pounds, or the title to land came in question. 

The General Sessions of the Peace were di- 
rected to be held four times a year in every Coun- 
ty, at the times and places mentioned in the Ordi- 
nance. For the County of Middlesex they were to 
be held at Amboy ; for Bergen at Bergen ; for Es- 
sex at Newark; for Monmouth at Shrewsbury; for 
Burlington at Burlington ; for Gloucester at Glou- 
cester ; for Salem at Salem ; and for Cape May, at 



44 ORDINANCE OF LORD CORNBURY. 

the House of Shamger Hand. 1 In Essex and Salem 
alone have the seats of justice remained unchanged, 
nor there, without some fierce struggles for a re- 
moval, the memory of which remains to this day. 

At Perth Amboy and Burlington, alternately, 
was to be held a Supreme Court of Judicature, 
which was fully empowered to have cognizance of 
all pleas, civil, criminal, and mixed, as amply, to all 
intents and purposes, as the Courts of Queen's 
Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, in the king- 
dom of England have, or ought to have. And if 
the question were now asked, what is the jurisdic- 
tion of the Supreme Court of the State of New 
Jersey as at present constituted, the only answer 
that could be given would be in the language of 
Lord Cornbury's Ordinance : they have all the ju- 
risdiction which the Courts of Queen's Bench, Com- 
mon Pleas, and Exchequer in England have, or 
ought to have. So little addicted to change have 
we shown ourselves in reference to our Courts! 
So truly conservative in its character has been the 
history of our State ! Into this Court might be re- 
moved from the Courts of Common Pleas and Ses- 



1 Nothing is here said as to the Middlesex ; for by the Ordinance of 

place where the Courts for the Coun- Governor Hunter in 1714, Courts for 

ty of Somerset were to be held. They both Middlesex and Somerset, were 

were probably held at the same place directed to be held at Perth Amboy. 
with the Courts for the County of 



ORDINANCE OF LORD CORNBURY. 45 

sions of the Peace, any plea, action, information, 
or indictment, therein depending, or upon which 
judgment had been rendered. 

There were to be two Terms of the Supreme 
Court every year, each Session not to exceed five 
days ; and once every year, if need should so require, 
a Circuit was to be held by one of the Justices of the 
Court in every County. The Judges of the several 
Courts were authorized to make rules of practice 
for regulating their proceedings ; and finally, it was 
ordained, that all issues of fact should be tried by 
twelve men of the neighborhood, " as it ought to be 
done by law." 1 

Such was the constitution of our Common Law 
Courts nearly a century and a half ago, and such 
in all its leading features it remains to this day. 2 I 



1 It will be seen that no provision at the hearing thereof and give the 
is made in this Ordinance for a Court reasons for their judgment. And a 
of Appeals in the last resort. The further Appeal was to be allowed 
constitution of this Court was not left from the Governor and Council, where 
to the Governor and Council, as was the sum in controversy exceeded two 
that of the other Courts, but it was hundred pounds sterling, to the Queen 
erected by the Queen in Council, and in Privy Council, 
made part of the Instructions to Lord 2 These Courts continued without 
Cornbury. It was there provided that any essential change to the Revolu- 
Appeals might be made in Cases of tion. The Constitution of 1776 mere- 
Error from the other Courts to the ly directed how the Judges were to 
Governor and Council ; but if any of be appointed, thereby tacitly adopting 
the members of Council were Judges them, with all the judicial power they 
of the Court from which the Appeal had at the time. And shortly after 
was taken, they were not to vote up- the adoption of the Constitution, the 
on the Appeal, but might be present Legislature enacted, " that the sever- 



46 ORDINANCE OF LORD CORNBURY. 

have dwelt the longer upon this Ordinance, because 
it seems to have escaped entirely the notice, not 
only of the Historians of New Jersey, but of those 
who have professedly written upon the subject 
of our Courts of Justice. Even William Griffith, 
the learned compiler of the Law Register, whose 
researches into the origin and progress of our Ju- 
diciary System are so well known to my profes- 
sional hearers, was evidently not aware of the ex- 
istence of such an Ordinance. After reciting the 
laws that were passed during the Proprietary Go- 
vernment of East Jersey in reference to the Court 
of Common Right, he goes on to say, that it was 
under these laws alone, that the Supreme Court 
acted from the Surrender in 1702 to the 29th of 
April, 1723 ; l losing sight, not only of the Ordi- 
nance of Lord Cornbury, but also of a similar Or- 
dinance of Governor Hunter in 17 14. 2 The truth 
is, that these Ordinances are not to be found in the 



al Courts of Law and Equity of this lor, and that the Court of Errors and 

State shall be confirmed and estab- Appeals in the last resort, instead of 

lished, and continue to be held with consisting of the Governor and Coun- 

the like powers under the present go- cil, was to be composed of the Chan- 

vernment, as they were held at and cellor, the Justices of the Supreme 

before the Declaration of Independ- Court, and six Judges to be appointed 

ence." — Pat. Laws, p. 38. for that purpose. 

Nor did the Constitution of 1844 ' Griffith's Law Reg., IV. 1175, 

make any alteration in the character Note 1. 

of our Courts, save only that the Go- a Appendix D. 
vemor was no longer to be Chancel- 



ORDINANCES. 47 

Book of Commissions in the office of the Secretary 
of State, from which source Mr. Griffith seems to 
have derived all his knowledge of the constitution 
of our Colonial Courts. So too, in tracing the 
history of the Court of Common Pleas, Mr. Grif- 
fith states that the Assembly soon after the Sur- 
render passed a law establishing Courts, which was 
disallowed by the king ; and that " on the 29th of 
April, 1723, George the Second, by the advice of 
the Lords of the Privy Council at the Court of St. 
James, established an Ordinance, which may be 
considered as the foundation of the jurisdiction of 
the Courts of New Jersey in civil and criminal 
cases, at common law." l 

This statement is singularly inaccurate. No 
such act was ever passed by the Colonial Assem- 
bly. 2 If there had been, it would unquestionably 
have been promptly vetoed by the Governor. It 
would never have found its way to the King in 
Council. The Royal Governors were not slow in 
asserting their prerogatives ; and they alone, with 
the advice of their Council, had the power of erect- 
ing Courts. And then, the Ordinance of George 



1 Griffith's Law Reg. IV. 1169, which was disallowed by the king in 
Note. Council, and is referred to in the Or- 

2 There was an act passed entitled, dinance of April 29th, 1723 ; and it 
" An Act for shortening lawsuits and must have been to this act that Mr. 
regulating the practice of the law," Griffith had reference. 



48 ORDINANCES. 

the Second, so far from being the foundation of the 
jurisdiction of our Courts, was, with a few slight 
alterations, but a copy of the original Ordinance of 
Lord Cornbury. 

It is this Ordinance of April 29th, 1723, which 
is inserted in the Appendix to one of the volumes 
of the Reports of our Supreme Court, as showing 
the original extent of the jurisdiction of our Courts, 
and which, the Reporter observes, remained, so 
far as he had been able to discover, unrepealed. 1 
Whereas, the fact is, that this Ordinance continued 
in force but a single year. It was found to be in- 
convenient in some respects, 2 and was superseded 
by another Ordinance of the King in Council, which 
bears date on the 23d of April, 1724 ; 3 and this in 
turn was supplied by still another Ordinance of the 
21st of August, 1725. 4 And then, in less than three 
years afterwards, we have the Ordinance of Febru- 
ary 10th, 1728, 5 by which two Supreme Courts 
were established in the Province, one for the West- 
ern division, to be held four times a year at Burling- 

1 1 Halstead's Rep. Appendix, p. sioners to take bail in the several coun- 

1. This Ordinance is recorded in ties; and, what was more important 

Book C of Commissions, No. 2, pages still, it made no provision for Circuit 

57 — 60. Courts to try issues of fact joined in 

1 It was not only found inconve- the Supreme Court, 
nient as to the times of the sitting of 3 Appendix E. 
the Courts, but it contained no autho- 4 Appendix F. 
rity for the appointment of Commis- * Appendix G. 



ORDINANCE OF LORD CORNBURY. 



49 



ton, and the other for the Eastern division to be 
held four times a year at Perth Amboy. 1 With such 
rapidity did these Ordinances follow each other. 
They are all, however, based in a great measure 
upon the original Ordinance of Lord Cornbury, and 
the only points in which several of them differ from 
each other, are as to the times of holding the re- 
spective Courts. These Ordinances were publish- 
ed in pamphlets at the time of their adoption, but 
very few copies of them are now in existence ; and 
most of them have never been transcribed in the 
Books of Commissions in the Secretary's office. 2 

In reference to the original Ordinance of Lord 
Cornbury, I will add, that I was led from a variety 
of circumstances to infer the existence of such a 
document, and yet I could meet with no one who 
had ever seen or heard of it. After a long and 
fruitless search for it in the office of the Secretary 
of State, and among the records of the Supreme 
Court, I had abandoned all hope of finding it, when 

1 The object of this arrangement and read, but what Its provisions 

probably was to prevent causes, which were are not stated, nor have I been 

originated in one division of the pro- able to find the Ordinance itself, 
vince, from being tried in the other. 2 It is for this reason that I have 

Both Courts were held by the. same deemed it advisable to insert in the 

Judges. This Ordinance however did Appendix such of these Ordinances 

not remain in force many years. It as I have been able to lay my hands 

appears by the Minutes of the Su- upon, and which are not to be found 

preme Court that on the 18th of May, in the Books of Commissions. 
1734, a new Ordinance was produced 



50 ORDINANCE OF LORD CORNBURY. 

I happened accidentally to light upon it, bound up 
in an old volume of Acts of Assembly in the State 
Library, where it had no doubt slept undisturbed for 
many a year. The name of Cornbury, in very 
large capitals, is subscribed to it, and it purports to 
have been printed " by William Bradford, Printer 
to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in the City 
of New York, 1704." By whom this Ordinance 
was framed, it is of course at this late day impossi- 
ble to ascertain. That it was by one familiar with 
the Common Law, and conversant with the Courts 
of Westminster Hall, may fairly be inferred ; and, 
as we shall presently see, such a man Lord Corn- 
bury had in his Council ; a man, who probably did 
more than all others, to mould the judicial systems 
both of New Jersey and New York. 1 

And now it would, I doubt not, relieve the te- 
diousness of these dry and uninteresting details, 
and illustrate somewhat the history of the times, 
could I introduce you for a few moments into the 
Courts thus established, and enable you to witness 
the passing scenes. Fortunately, the materials for 
such a purpose exist in the greatest abundance. 
The early minutes of our Supreme Court are copi- 
ous even to a fault, atod open a mine of curious and 



1 Roger Mompesson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey 
and also of New York. 



EARLY MINUTES OF SUPREME COURT. 51 

valuable information, which has never yet been ex- 
plored. 1 Time, however, will not allow us to do 
more than to glance at them ; and, in doing so, we 
shall find Lord Cornbury figuring in his true char- 
acter, and laboring to make the tribunals which 
he had erected the mere instruments of his ven- 
geance. 

The first session of the Supreme Court was held 
at Burlington on the seventh day of November, 1704. 
The Commissions of Roger Mompesson as Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature of the 
Province of New Jersey, and of William Pinhorne 
as second Judge, were read, and they took their 
seats upon the bench. The Court then adjourned 
to eight o'clock of the following day, a somewhat 
earlier hour, it may be remarked, than that at 
which Courts of Justice at the present day are in 
the habit of convening. A Grand Jury was returned 
by the Sheriff of the County of Burlington, and a 
charge delivered to them by the Chief Justice. No 
indictments, however, were found, and no civil 
causes were ready for trial, and after the admission 
of a number of Attornies, the Court adjourned to 



1 These minutes contain full re- tried at bar in the Supreme Court, 

ports of some of the early trials had but Grand Juries were returned by 

in the Supreme Court, including the the Sheriff of the County in which 

testimony of the witnesses who were the Court sat, aud the Indictments 

:xamined. Not only were civil suits tried there. 



52 PROCEEDINGS OF SUPREME COURT. 

the first Tuesday of May, at Burlington. 1 At the 
next term of the Court Alexander Griffith appeared 
with his commission as her Majesty's Attorney Ge- 
neral for the Province of New Jersey, and a num- 
ber of Indictments were sent up to the Grand Jury. 
The Bills were first drawn, and the witnesses who 
were to be examined by the Grand Jury were 
sworn in open Court, according to the English 
practice, which prevailed in New Jersey until after 
the Revolution. 2 And what, think you, was the 
nature of these Indictments ? They were all In- 
dictments for uttering seditious words of, and con- 
cerning, Lord Cornbury ; for already had his con- 
duct begun to provoke the contempt and indigna- 
tion of the people. 



1 It ought to have adjourned to murder ever found in the county of 
Amboy instead of Burlington, for by Gloucester, appears to have been tried 
the Ordinance it was to be held at before Lord Cornbury in person. He 
these two places alternately. We had a very exalted notion of his pre- 
find, however, a good many irregula- rogative ; and as the king in England 
rities in the early proceedings of our is always supposed to be present in 
Courts, which cannot now be ac- his Court of King's Bench, and for- 
counted for. Thus we find Justices merly, as it is thought, sat there in 
of the Peace sitting upon the Bench person, so Lord Cornbury, as his re- 
ef the Supreme Court. They formed presentative, may have considered 
part of the Provincial Court of West himself entitled to a similar privilege. 
Jersey before the Surrender, but un- 2 The practice now is for the wit- 
der the new order of things, they nesses to be sworn in the Grand Jury 
would seem to have been out of their room, the Foreman being authorized 
place there. And yet their names to administer the oath to them ; and 
are regularly entered on the minutes Indictments are not usually drawn 
along with the Judges of the Supreme until the Grand Jury have resolved to 
Court. And the first Indictment for find a bill. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SUPREME COURT. 53 

The first Indictment was against John Hollings- 
head, and the words, for the speaking of which he 
was thus solemnly arraigned, were these. He was 
charged with saying, " That the Governor had dis- 
solved the Assembly, but that they could get ano- 
ther just as good, and if the Governor liked them 
not, he might go from whence he came." The 
next Indictment was against Walter Pomphrey. 
At an election for members of the Assembly held 
in Burlington, he was charged with having said to 
one of the voters, " I will give you a pot of beer to 
vote for the old Assemblymen, because they would 
give Lord Cornbury no more than thirty-five hun- 
dred pounds, which his Lordship made a huff at." 
Then there were two Indictments against Jedidiah 
Allen ; one for saying, " that the Assembly could 
have done their business well enough, but that the 
Governor dissolved it, which he was satisfied was 
because they would not give him money enough ;" 
and the other for saying, "that Colonel Morris 
was dismissed from being of the Council by my 
Lord, but that it was more than my Lord had power 
to do." 

Such was Lord Cornbury's notion of sedition. 
That the words spoken were true, was probably 
deemed an aggravation of the offence. He no 
doubt adopted in its fullest extent the maxim, " the 



54 PROCEEDINGS OF SUPREME COURT. 

greater the truth the greater the libel." I hope it 
is unnecessary to say that the Grand Jury returned 
each of the Bills with an ignoramus. In other 
words, they refused to find them. Here, it may be 
supposed, this ridiculous and disgraceful matter 
ended. But Lord Cornbury was not thus to be put 
off. He was flushed with the victory which he had 
just achieved at a recent election, the only one 
during his whole administration which resulted in 
the choice of a majority of members to his mind. 1 
And the new Assembly had complimented him by 
an address, in which they say, that he had gone 
through the affairs of government " with great dili- 
gence and exquisite management, to the admiration 
of his friends and the envy of his enemies." He 
was resolved to vindicate still further the justice of 
this compliment. When therefore these Indict- 
ments were thrown out by the Grand Jury, the At- 
torney General was instructed to apply to the Court 
for leave to file Informations. Leave was accord- 
ingly granted, and informations were immediately 
drawn up against all the Defendants, almost in the 
very words of the Indictments. The Defendants 
being charged, pleaded not guilty. Hollingshead 
moved to postpone his trial until the following 

1 Smith's N. J., p. 283. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SUPREME COURT. 55 

term ; and the motion was allowed, but upon this 
condition, that he should put in an issuable plea, 
thereby admitting the sufficiency of the Informa- 
tion. An order was accordingly made, that he 
should enter into a recognizance to appear at the 
next term, to put in an issuable plea, and to keep 
the peace and be of good behavior in the mean 
time. This Hollingshead positively refused to do, 
and then the Court, instead of ordering on the trial 
of the cause, committed him for contempt, as it 
was termed, and, it is added, for abusing the wit- 
nesses for her majesty. How or where he had 
abused the Queen's witnesses, does not appear. _ 
Pomphrey, not caring, I suppose, to have his 
case postponed upon the same terms, consented to 
go to trial. A Jury was at once empanneled and 
the trial proceeded. A number of witnesses were 
examined to prove the speaking of the words, and 
their testimony is spread upon the minutes of the 
Court. The Defendant had no counsel, and offered 
no evidence ; and after a charge from the Chief 
Justice, the Jury rendered a verdict of guilty. But 
although the Court — to their shame be it spoken — 
had thus far humored his Lordship, they did not 
dare to pronounce judgment. The Defendant was 
recognized to appear from term to term, and at last 
forfeited his recognizance ; with an understanding, 



56 PROCEEDINGS OF SUPREME COURT. 

probably, that no further proceedings would be had 
against him. 

At the next term of the Court, held in Burling- 
ton, Hollingshead was tried upon his information, 
and acquitted ; but the Court refused to discharge 
him, until he had paid all the costs of the prosecu- 
tion. What became of the information against 
Jedidiah Allen, does not appear. In May Term, 
1707, Thomas Killingworth was tried upon two 
several Informations exhibited against him for 
speaking contemptuously of the Church of Eng- 
land — of which you know Lord Cornbury was a 
most zealous defender — but the Jury found him 
not guilty. And I ought to say, in justice to the 
Juries of those days, that although numberless In- 
formations for similar offences were tried in the 
Supreme Court during the administration of Lord 
Cornbury, I can find no other instance in which a 
verdict of guilty was ever rendered. 

Comment upon these proceedings is unneces- 
sary. The bare recital of them proclaims more 
strongly than any language can do, the tame sub- 
seviency of the Court and the contemptible charac- 
ter of Cornbury. But I must close at once this 
old book of minutes, or I shall exhaust your pa- 
tience long before I have finished my task. 

Roger Mompesson was the first Chief Justice of 



ROGER MOMPESSON. 



57 



the Province of New Jersey. Miss Anne Seward, 
in one of her letters, after describing a steep ro- 
mantic dell in the high peak of Derbyshire, on the 
brow of which stood the large and populous village 
of Eyam, states, that it was in this rocky gallery 
that Mr. Mompesson, the rival in virtue of the good 
Bishop of Marseilles, preached to his parishioners 
of the village, When it was visited by the plague in 
1666, rationally concluding that assembling in a 
close church would be likely to increase the infec- 
tion. 1 From this pious and courageous Rector of 
Eyam, 2 Roger Mompesson is supposed to have de- 



1 Seward's Letters, vol. i. Miss 
Seward to Miss Weston, Sept. 6, 
1783. 

2 William Mompesson was Rector 
of Eyam in Derbyshire, during the 
time of the plague in London. He 
never caught the disorder ; and was 
enabled during the whole period of 
the calamity, to perform the functions 
of the physician and the priest of his 
afflicted parish. During these pious 
labors, his wife was taken ill and died. 
There are some touching passages in 
a letter written by him upon this oc- 
casion to Sir George Saville, the pa- 
tron of the living of Eyam. " This 
is the saddest news that ever my pen 
could write ! The destroying angel 
having taken up his quarters within 
my habitation, my dearest wife is 
gone to her eternal rest, and is in- 
vested with a crown of righteousness, 
having made a happy end." 



" Indeed, had she loved herself as 
well as me, she had fled from the pit 
of destruction with her sweet babes, 
and might have prolonged her days > 
but she was resolved to die a martyr 
to my interest. My drooping spirits 
are much refreshed with her joys, 
which I think are unutterable." 

" Dear sir, let your dying chaplain 
recommend this truth to you and 
your family, that no happiness nor 
solid comfort can be found in this vale 
of tears, like living a pious life ; and 
pray ever retain this rule ; • never do 
any thing upon which you dare not 
ask the blessing of God.' " 

" With tears I beg, that when you 
are praying for fatherless infants, you 
would remember my two pretty 
babes." — Kingston's Am. Biog. Die, 
p. 209. 



58 ROGER MOMPESSON. 

scended. His family was an ancient and respecta- 
ble one, and he had attained to considerable emi- 
nence in England, before he came to this country. 
He was not only an eminent lawyer, but he had 
been the Recorder of Southampton, and a member 
of two several Parliaments. He arrived in Phila- 
delphia in the summer of 1703, and was the bearer 
of a letter from William Penn to James Logan, for 
a copy of which, in the possession of the American 
Philosophical Society, I am indebted to the kind- 
ness of Edward Armstrong, Esq., the Recording 
Secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. 

" The gentleman," writes Penn, " who brings 
this, is constituted Judge of the Admiralty of 
Pennsylvania, the Jerseys, and New York, and is 
yet willing to be my Attorney General to rectify 
matters in law, and to put you into better methods, 
in which respect, he is by the judicious here thought 
to be very able. If you were together, it were for 
thy advantage in many respects. He is a moderate 
Churchman, knows the world here, has been in two 
several Parliaments, and Recorder of Southampton. 
Only steps abroad to ease his fortune of some of 
his father's debts he was unwarily engaged for. He 
is a favorite of Lord Cornbury's father, the Earl of 
Clarendon. I have granted him a commission for 
Chief Justice, in case the people will lay hold of 



ROGER MOMPESSON. 59 

such an opportunity as no Government in America 
ever had of an English lawyer, and encourage him 
by a proper salary." 

Logan in reply announces the arrival of " Coun- 
sellor Mompesson ;" and in another letter to Penn 
some months afterwards, thus speaks of him : " He 
is ingenious, able, honest, and might be a great 
blessing to us could we enjoy it." He also sug- 
gests that if he could be made Chief Justice by the 
Queen for Jersey, as well as Pennsylvania, it would 
be a great encouragement to him, and that he could 
serve more Provinces than both these in that 
station. 1 

The people of Pennsylvania, however, seemed 
very insensible to the blessing thus tendered them, 
and were slow in laying hold of this opportunity of 
having an English lawyer for their Chief Justice. 

1 Mompesson's arrival had been or, in case of my cousin Markham's 

heralded by a letter from Perm to Lo- decease or refusal, if he were Regis- 

gan, in which he says, " I hope you ter General, I should like it for his 

will have one out shortly, that will be deserved encouragement." 
a safer guide and surer footing than Samuel Preston writes to a friend 

ever yet was with you ; an able- in England under date of August 13 

grounded lawyer, and a good-temper- 1703: " To the no small surprise of 

ed, honest, sober gentleman." Col. Quarry, arrived here as soon or 

Again he writes under date of before report, one Roger Mompesson, 

April 3d, 1703: " If Counsellor Mom- Judge for the Admiralty, famed as a 

pesson cannot have a salary from the man of great abilities, free, it is said, 

people as Chief Justice of the Pro- from prejudices of party, of integrity, 

vince, for which he is well fitted, then friendly to Gov. Penn, and, as it is 

if he were Secretary of the govern- thought, like to be a happiness to this 

ment, (if that post is a clog to thee,) place." 



60 ROGER MOMPESSON. 

He was not sworn into office until April, 1706, and 
there is no evidence that he ever took his seat on 
the Bench. 1 The administration of justice was at 
this time, and for many years afterwards, in a very 
unsettled state in Pennsylvania, and the people, as 
Logan says in one of his letters to Penn, had be- 
come " so superlatively honest," that there was 
little business for the Courts to do ; so that the 
Chief Justice had not much hope of mending his 
fortune in that Province. In the mean time Lord 
Cornbury, the son of his friend and patron, had 
been appointed Governor of New Jersey and New 
York, and at once made him the Chief Justice of 
both those Provinces ; which office he continued 



1 The following are extracts from be reasonably hoped, since the coun- 

the minutes of the Provincial Council try has now made some provision 

of Pennsylvania, published by order for the support of government, they 

of the Legislature, in 1838. will not fail likewise to provide for 

At a Council held at Philadelphia the administration of justice in the 

the 17th of April, 1706. " The Go- Courts, and especially take care to 

vernor acquainted the Board that the lay hold on so good an opportunity 

Proprietor had, by Judge Mompesson, offered them." 

sent over his warrant directed to Col. The Governor then ordered a Com- 

Hamilton, to pass a commission un- mission, appointing the said R. Mom- 

der the great seal, constituting the pesson Chief Justice, to be read, 

said gentleman Chief Justice of this which being done, the Chief Justice 

Government ; but that Col. Hamilton took the usual oaths. — 2 Pro. Min., 

being deceased before his arrival, it p. 287. 

could not then be done, and it has No provision, however, seems to 

been to this time deferred ; but that have been made for the administra- 

at length the said Judge has been tion of justice ; and Mompesson was 

pleased to accept of it, though the pre- obliged to be content with acting as 

sent encouragement be but very slen- the Chief Justice of New York and 

der and no way inviting, yet it may New Jersey. 



ROGER MOMPESSON. 61 

to fill during the whole of Cornbury's administra- 
tion. He became his principal adviser in all mat- 
ters of law, and was no doubt the author of that 
Ordinance to which reference has already been 
made. All cotemporary authorities agree in repre- 
senting him to have been a man of much ability, 
and great learning in his profession. And when we 
remember that he was an English lawyer, and pre- 
sided for so many years over the Courts of New 
York and New Jersey, we shall have less difficulty 
in accounting for the fact, of the close resemblance, 
which has until recently existed in the judicial sys- 
tems of these States, and their general conformity 
to the practice of the Courts of Westminster Hall. 

Of the private life and character of the Chief 
Justice, unfortunately,, little can now be known ; 
but in the political transactions of the times, he 
played a somewhat conspicuous, and not a very 
creditable part. He was not named as one of the 
Council in the Instructions of Lord Cornbury, but 
he soon became a member of the Board, probably 
in the place of Lewis Morris, who had been ex- 
pelled by the Governor for his refractory conduct. 
And certainly, a more pliant and submissive coun- 
cillor than Mompesson, Lord Cornbury could not 
have desired. 

All who are at all familiar with the history of 



62 REMONSTRANCE OF THE ASSEMBLY. 

New Jersey, will readily call to mind the sharp pas- 
sages of words which took place between the As- 
sembly and the Governor in 1707. A series of the 
most wanton and flagrant acts of tyranny and ra- 
pacity had so exhausted the patience of the House, 
that, instead of paying the least regard to his con- 
stant demands for money, they resolved themselves 
into a committee of the whole to consider of their 
grievances. After resolving to petition the Queen 
for his removal, they drew up a long remonstrance 
to be presented to Lord Cornbury in person, laden 
with their complaints. This memorable produc- 
tion was from the pen of Lewis Morris, who after 
his expulsion from the Council, had been returned 
as a member of Assembly ; and it was certainly 
couched in no very courtly style, nor expressed in 
very measured terms. Various were the counts in 
this indictment. The Governor — for by this title 
only did they now address him — was charged with 
long and unnecessary absence from the Province ; 
with refusing to pass sentence of death upon two 
criminals — one of whom had been convicted of 
murdering her child, and the other of poisoning her 
husband — the blood of whose innocent victims, it 
was said, cried aloud for vengeance, which just 
heaven would not fail to pour down upon their de- 
voted country if such crimes went unpunished ; 



REMONSTRANCE OF THE ASSEMBLY. 63 

with compelling persons unjustly accused to pay 
costs, although no bills were found against them by 
the Grand Jury ; with unauthorized and arbitrary 
interference with the rights of the Proprietors ; 
and, to crown the whole, with having received 
large sums of money raised for the purpose of pro- 
curing by bribery and corruption a dissolution of 
the Assembly. Liberty, they said, was too valua- 
ble a thing to be easily parted with, and when 
such violent endeavors were used to tear it from 
them, they had neither heads, hearts, nor souls, 
that would not be moved with the miseries of their 
country, and would not be forward with their ut- 
most power lawfully to redress them. And they 
concluded by advising the Governor to consider 
what it was that principally engaged the affections 
of a people, and that he would find no other arti- 
fices needful, than to let them be unmolested in the 
enjoyment of what of right belonged to them ; that 
a wise man who valued his own happiness, would 
earnestly labor to regain their love. 1 

Samuel Jenings 2 was the Speaker of the As- 



1 Smith's N. J., pp. 288 — 294. the widow, the fatherless, and the un- 

s Samuel Jenings is described by happy ; an ardent lover of right and 

Smith as a man of great candor, pro- liberty, and abhorring oppression in 

bity, and ability ; of a warm and has- every shape; and although some- 

ty temper, but with a heart alive to times thought stiff and impracticable 

every generous emotion ; a friend to in his opinions, yet of acknowledged 



64 REMONSTRANCE OF THE ASSEMBLY. 

sembly, and upon him it devolved to present to 
the Governor this bold and spirited address ; and 
certainly it lost nothing of pungency or point in 
the manner of its delivery. Not at all daunted by 
the assumed air of loftiness and disdain which the 
Governor put on in order to intimidate him, he read 
it in a clear, firm, and deliberate tone, and when 
interrupted, as he frequently was, by the cry of 
stop ! wliafs that ? whenever he came to the more 
offensive parts, instead of being disconcerted, with 
an appearance of great humility he calmly desired 
leave to read the passages over again, which he did, 
says Smithy "with an additional emphasis upon 
those the most complaining, so that on the second 
reading they became more observable than be- 
fore." l 

When the Assembly had withdrawn, Cornbury 



integrity and fortitude in all stations. Governor of West Jersey ; — he was 

He had lived for some years in Penn- a suppressor of vice and an encour- 

sylvania and borne several important ager of virtue ; — sharp towards evil 

offices in that province. He had al- doers, but tender and loving to them 

so been Governor of West Jersey un- that did well; giving good counsel 

der the Proprietary Government. — and wholesome advice to friends and 

Smith's N. J., 352. neighbors ; — an able minister of the 

His character is thus sketched by Gospel, and labored much therein, to 

one of the first settlers of New Jersey, the comfort and edification of many 

" Samuel Jenings and his wife Ann, people, both in this province and other 

were early comers to America, and places." — Proud's Pennsylvania r I. 

of worthy memory, endued with both 158. Note, 

spiritual and temporal wisdom ; — ' Smith's N. J., 295-. 
some part of his time he was made 



LORD CORNBURY'S ANSWER. 65 

said to those about him, " that fellow Jenings has 
impudence enough to face the devil." After the 
lapse of some days, the Governor sent for the 
House, and delivered his answer. It was written 
and delivered in a tone of insolent defiance, and 
contained a good deal of that low humor for which 
he was noted. 

In reference to the first charge, he says : " The 
affairs of New York have never hindered the Go- 
vernor from attending those of New Jersey when- 
ever it has been requisite ; and I can safely say, I 
don't know of any grievances this Province labors 
under, except it be the having a certain number of 
people in it who never will be faithful to, nor live 
quietly under any government, nor suffer their 
neighbors to enjoy any peace, quiet, or happiness, 
if they can help it." 

As to the second charge he thus proceeds : " As 
to what you say with relation to the apprehensions 
you have, that just heaven will not fail to pour 
down vengeance upon your already miserable coun- 
try, if these criminals are not made to suffer ac- 
cording to their demerits ; I am of opinion, that no- 
thing has hindered the vengeance of just heaven 
from falling upon this province long ago, but the 
infinite mercy, goodness, long-suffering, and for- 
bearance of Almighty God, who has been abun- 

5 



66 LORD CORNBURY'S ANSWER. 

dantly provoked by the repeated crying sins of a 
perverse generation among us, and more especially 
by the dangerous and abominable doctrines, and 
the wicked lives and practices of a number of peo- 
ple," (meaning the Quakers,) " some of whom, un- 
der the pretended name of Christians, have dared 
to deny the very essence and being of the Saviour 
of the world." 

With regard to persons paying fees, against 
whom no bills had been found by the Grand Jury, 
he intimates, that if juries were in this country 
what they ought to be, there might possibly be some 
ground of complaint ; " but," he adds, " we find by 
woful experience, that there are many men who 
have been admitted to serve upon grand and petty 
juries, who have convinced the world, that they 
have no regard for the oaths they take, especially 
among a sort of people, who, under a pretence of 
conscience, refuse to take an oath ; and yet many 
of them, under the cloak of a very solemn affirma- 
tion, dare to commit the greatest enormities, espe- 
cially if it be to serve a friend, as they call him." 
Jenings, you know, was a Quaker. 

Another complaint was, that there was but one 
office for the probate of wills, which was at Burling- 
ton, and that it was very expensive and inconve- 
nient for persons living in remote parts of the Pro- 



LORD CORNBURY'S ANSWER. 67 

vince to attend it. After pronouncing this com- 
plaint to be malicious, scandalous, and frivolous, 
contrived only to amuse poor ignorant people with 
notions of grievances, he says : " But of all peo- 
ple in the world, the Quakers ought to be the last to 
complain of the hardships of travelling a few miles 
upon such an occasion, who never repine at the 
trouble and charges of travelling several hundred 
miles to a yearly meeting, where it is evidently 
known, that nothing was ever done for the good of 
the country, but on the contrary, continual contri- 
vances are carried on for the undermining of the 
Government both in Church and State." 

" These, Governor, are some of the grievances," 
was one of the expressions in the remonstrance. 
This, he says, is certainly one of the boldest asser- 
tions that ever was made, especially when there 
appears no manner of proof to make it out : " And 
although I know very well, that there are several 
unquiet spirits in the Province, who will never be 
content to live quiet under any government but 
their own, and not long under that neither, as ap- 
pears by their methods of proceeding when the 
Government was in the hands of the Proprietors, 
when many of these very men who are now the re- 
monstrancers, were in authority, and used the most 
arbitrary and illegal methods of proceeding over 



6 g LORD CORNBURY'S ANSWER. 

their fellow-subjects that were ever heard of; yet I 
am satisfied there are very few men in the province, 
except Samuel Jenings and Lewis Morris — men 
known neither to have good principles, nor good 
morals — who have ventured to accuse a Governor 
of such crimes, without any proof to make out 
their accusation ; but they are capable of any thing 
but good." 

" I was going to conclude," he says, " with giv- 
ing you some wholesome advice ; but I consider 
that will be but labor lost, and therefore shall re- 
serve it for persons who I hope will make a right 
use of it." 

A replication to this answer was of course pre- 
pared by the Assembly, and a committee appointed 
to present it to the Governor ; but he refused to 
receive it, and the House thereupon ordered that it 
should be entered on their journal. It was dig- 
nified and dispassionate, but entirely too long to be 
here inserted. There was one passage in it, how- 
ever, too characteristic to be omitted. In refer- 
ence to his repeated attacks upon the Quakers, 
they remind him, that it was the General Assembly 
of the Province of New Jersey that complained, 
and not the Quakers, with whose persons and 
meetings they had nothing to do ; but, it is added, 
" those of them who are members of this House, 



ADDRESS OF LIEUT. GOV. AND COUNCIL. qq 

have begged leave, in behalf of themselves and their 
friends, to tell the Governor, they must answer him 
in the words of Nehemiah to Sanballat, contained 
in the eighth verse of the sixth chapter of Nehemiah, 
viz. : " There are no such things done as thou sayest, 
but thoufeignest them out of thine own heart.'''' 1 

The Governor, alarmed at the effect which 
these complaints and remonstrances might have at 
home, prevailed upon the Lieutenant Governor 
Ingoldsby, and some of the Council, to unite in an 
address to the Queen, in which they fully justify 
the whole of Lord Cornbury's conduct ; pronounce 
the charges made against him by the Assembly 
false and malicious ; and ascribe all the difficulties 
which had arisen, to the " turbulent, factious, and 
disloyal principles of two men in the Assembly, 
Lewis Morris, and Samuel Jenings a Quaker — men 
notoriously known to be uneasy under all govern- 
ment — men never known to be consistent with 
themselves — men to whom all the factions and con- 
fusions in the Government of New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania for many years are wholly owing." 
The language of this address betokened but too 
clearly the source from which it emanated. It was 
in Lord Cornbury's own peculiar vein. 2 

1 This reply will be found at large 2 This address was not an act of 
in Smith's N. J., pp. 313—336. the Council, nor was it entered on 



70 ROGER MOMPESSON. 

One of the Council who put his name to this 
address was Roger Mompesson, the Chief Justice ; 
and I have felt it to be my duty to go somewhat at 
large into this transaction, that his conduct upon 
the occasion might be exhibited in its true light. 
There may have been possibly a little exaggeration 
in some of the charges brought against the Govern- 
or. There may have been a spirit of factious op- 
position upon the part of some of the members of 
the House. But after making every allowance for 
the influence of party feeling, and a sense of per- 
sonal obligation for numerous favors conferred by 
Lord Cornbury, it is impossible not to pronounce 
upon the Chief Justice a sentence of stern and un- 
qualified condemnation. 

The next year Cornbury was removed, 1 and 

their minutes ; but was carried about ly accountable to her majesty for the 

secretly by a messenger of Lord same. 

Cornbury's, the signature of a number Those who put their names to the 

of the members procured by artifice, address were Richard Ingoldsby, 

and then it was transmitted privately William Pinhome, Roger Mompes- 

to the Queen. The Lieutenant Go- son, Thomas Revell, Daniel Leeds, 

vernor protested he signed it without Daniel Coxe, Richard Townley, Wil- 

ever reading it ; the Chief Justice liam Sandford, and Robert Quarry, 
owned he never examined into the Quarry figures in the history of se- 

particulars of it. Sandford was the veral of the Colonies. Smith says he 

only one who seems to have behaved was of the Council for five govern- 

with any manliness in reference to it. ments at one time, viz. : New York, 

When questioned by the House he New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland 

admitted having signed it ; and upon and Virginia. 

being asked if he would acknowledge ' " Her majesty," says the histo- 

his fault, he said he signed it as one rian of New York, " graciously list- 

of her majesty's Council, and was on ened to the cries of her injured sub- 



PROCEEDINGS OF ASSEMBLY. 71 

Mompesson, apprehensive, no doubt, that a similar 
fate awaited him, surrendered his commission. In 
1710, during the administration of Governor Hunt- 
er, this address of the Lieutenant Governor and 
Council was made the subject of much discussion 
in the Assembly. By a solemn vote, they pro- 
nounced it to be a false and scandalous paper. 
They expelled William Sandford, one of their 
members, for having signed it, and in an address to 
Governor Hunter they review it at great length, 
and comment with much severity upon the conduct 
of the Chief Justice and Pinhorne, charging them 
with having made the Courts of Law in which they 
were Judges, instead of a protection and security 
to the liberties and properties of her majesty's sub- 
jects, the invaders and destroyers of them both. 
Mompesson did not attempt to justify his conduct. 



jects, divested him of his power, and the qualities by which his distinguish- 
appointed Lord Lovelace in his stead ; ed ancestor was characterized, ex- 
declaring that she would not counte- cept an exaggeration of his zeal for 
nance her nearest relations in op- the Church of England, and his intol- 
pressing her people. erance of all other ecclesiastical asso- 

" We never had a governor so uni- ciations. The rest of Lord Cornbury's 

versally detested, nor any who so character would have disgraced more 

richly deserved the public abhorrence, estimable qualities ; and seems to 

In spite of his noble descent, his be- have formed a composition, no less 

havior was trifling, mean, and extra- odious than despicable, of rapacity 

vagant." — Smith's JV. Y., 188. and prodigality, voluptuousness and 

"Edward, Lord Cornbury, grand- inhumanity, the loftiest arrogance and 

son of Lord Chancellor Clarendon," the meanest chicane." — Grahame's 

says Grahame, " possessed not one of Col. Hist., 454. 



72 TRIAL OF FRANCIS McKEMIE. 

The only excuse he assigned for putting his name 
to the paper was, that he had signed it without ex- 
amining its contents. 

As Chief Justice of New York, Mompesson's 
conduct, in all matters in which Lord Cornbury 
was concerned, was of a piece with his behavior in 
New Jersey. In 1707, Francis McKemie, a Pres- 
byterian clergyman, was arrested by order of Lord 
Cornbury, for preaching without a license in the 
village of Newtown, a short distance from New 
York. He was carried in triumph a circuit of se- 
veral miles through Jamaica to the city of New 
York, where he was thrown into jail, and kept in 
close confinement for upwards of six weeks be- 
fore he was admitted to bail. Upon his trial — 
which produced great excitement, and drew toge- 
ther a large concourse of people — Mompesson 
presided, and is said to have been guilty of the most 
shameful partiality. 1 He exerted all his influence 
to induce the jury to find a special verdict — thus 
putting the defendant entirely in the power of the 
Court. Failing in this, and the jury without hesi- 
tation acquitting the defendant, the Court refused 
to discharge him until he had paid all the fees of 
his prosecution. 2 But we have said more than 



1 Smith's N. Y., 184. lished at the time by one who styles 

s A narrative of this trial was pub- himself " A learner of law and a 



WILLIAM PINHORNE. 



73 



enough, perhaps, of the first Chief Justice of New 
Jersey. 

The associate of Mompesson upon the Bench 
of the Supreme Court was William Pinhorne, to 
whom some allusion has already been made. But 
as he filled for many years a high judicial station in 
New York as well as in New Jersey, and was the 
acting Governor of this colony after the removal of 
Cornbury and Ingoldsby, and before the arrival of 
Governor Hunter, he merits a fuller notice. He 
has too a further claim upon our attention, from 
the fact, that he is the lineal ancestor in the mater- 
nal line of the late Chief Justice of our Supreme 
Court, the honored President of this Society. 1 



lover of liberty." It was reprinted " they might choose, whether they 
in New York, in 1755. An exami- would or not give any reasons for 
nation of this narrative will hardly their verdict." The foreman said, 
justify the charge of partiality which the defendant had not 'transgressed 
has been made against Mompesson. any law : another of the jury told the 
True, he observes in his charge to the Court, they believed in their con- 
jury, " Mr. Attorney says the fact is sciences they had done the defendant 
confessed by the defendant, and I justice ; and then the verdict was re- 
would have you bring it in specially, corded. It ought also to be stated, 
for there are some points I am not that while the author of this narra- 
prepared to answer :" but at the tive is severe in his denunciation of 
same time he tells them, " If you will Cornbury, not a word of complaint is 
take upon you to judge of the law, uttered against the Chief Justice, 
you may, or you may bring in the ' Hon. Joseph C. Hornblower, 
fact specially." And when the jury Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 
returned with a verdict of " not guil- from 1832 to 1846, whose judicial 
ty," and some of the Court began to career — distinguished alike for the 
inquire of them reasons for their ver- exhibition of the deepest learning and 
diet, the Chief Justice told the jury, the loftiest integrity — it will be the 



74 WILLIAM PINHORNE. 

He was originally a merchant in the City of 
New York, and had gained some distinction in that 
Province before his removal to New Jersey. He 
was a member of the Council there during the brief 
but turbulent administration of Governor Sloughter, 
when Leisler and Milborne were condemned and 
executed for treason. He was one of the Judges 
too of the Supreme Court, at the time that Joseph 
Dudley — afterwards Governor of Massachusetts — 
was the Chief Justice. He remained a member of 
the Council until the arrival of Governor Fletcher 
in 1692, when he was refused the oath of office, 
upon the ground of his being a non-resident. 1 

He had some years before this purchased a tract 
of land in New Jersey, containing upwards of a 
thousand acres, and lying near the Hackensack 
river, in what is now the county of Hudson. This 
must have been a place of some note in that early 
day, for we find a particular description of it in 
Scot's Model of East New Jersey. 2 It is there 
spoken of as a " brave plantation," near unto 
Snake Hill, on a piece of land almost an island, 

grateful task of some future legal an- East New Jersey, p. 137. This work 

nalist to record. Upon his retire- was originally published at Edin- 

ment from the Bench, he was ap- burgh in 1685, and is reprinted in the 

pointed senior Professor in the Law Appendix to Mr. Whitehead's His- 

School of the College of New Jersey. tory of East Jersey under the Pro- 

1 Smith's N. J., 133. prietors. 

2 Model of the Government of 



WILLIAM PINHORNE. 75 

and is said to be " well stocked and improved." 
This became his future residence, and was honored 
with the name of " Mount Pinhorne," certainly a 
more euphonious appellation than Snake Hill. It 
was the seat of simple but not inelegant hospitality, 
and the home of a numerous family, many of the 
descendants of which are still among us. He was 
appointed by Lord Cornbury second Judge of the 
Supreme Court of New Jersey, and took his seat 
on the Bench at the first term, which was held at 
Burlington in November, 1704. 

He continued upon the Bench during the whole 
of Cornbury's administration, and from his con- 
nexion with Mompesson, it was scarcely possible 
for him to escape a portion of that obloquy which 
attached to the Chief Justice, on account of his 
subserviency to the Governor. Not only was he 
connected with the Chief Justice by official ties, 
but a new and more interesting relation soon came 
to subsist between them. Pinhorne had several 
daughters, and the Chief Justice was fond of visit- 
ing this " brave plantation" at Snake Hill, lying as 
it did on the way from his Courts in New Jersey to 
those in New York. Here he was wont to repose 
himself after his judicial toils, and being a bachelor, 
it followed as a very natural consequence, that Miss 
Martha Pinhorne soon became Mrs. Mompesson. 



76 WILLIAM PINHORNE. 

He was prompted no doubt in his choice by affec- 
tion, but he may also have thought, that it was a 
more effectual way of mending his fortune, than by 
being Chief Justice with a salary of a hundred 
pounds a year. 

But whether owing to his connexion with the 
Chief Justice, or to his own official misconduct, it 
cannot be denied that Pinhorne was a most unpopu- 
lar Judge, and that he- rendered himself peculiarly 
obnoxious to the party who were in opposition to 
Cornbury. He was one of the signers of the ad- 
dress to the Queen from the Lieutenant Governor 
and Council, an account of which has already been 
given ; and when a subsequent Assembly came to 
review that address, they were unsparing in their 
denunciations of the Second Judge. Among other 
matters laid to his charge, they accuse him of hav- 
ing denied the writ of habeas corpus, the undoubted 
right and great privilege of the subject, to Thomas 
Gordon, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, 
and with having detained him in custody, until he 
had applied to a son of Pinhorne, an attorney at 
law, for professional aid, and then, and not until 
then, admitting him to bail. 1 It is but just, how- 
ever, to say, that this address of the Assembly has 

1 Smith's N. J., 391. 



WILLIAM PINHORNE. 77 

the appearance of being a little colored, and that 
its statements ought to be taken with some grains of 
allowance. While the Assembly were animated no 
doubt by a very patriotic spirit, and while there 
was quite enough in the conduct of Cornbury and 
his Council to furnish ground for complaint, yet, as 
is usual in such cases, there was evidently a little 
passion mingled with their patriotism. Nor ought 
it to be forgotten, that the eloquent leader of the 
popular party, Lewis Morris — the man who pen- 
ned most of the addresses of the Assembly at this 
time — when at a subsequent period he became 
Governor himself, was denounced almost as strong- 
ly, and handled as roughly by the representatives 
of the people, as ever Lord Cornbury had been. If 
colonial Governors and Judges were prone to be 
arbitrary and oppressive, it must be confessed, that 
colonial Assemblies were sometimes composed of 
inveterate political scolds. 

Upon the removal of Cornbury, Pinhorne con- 
tinued to be a member of the Council, and united 
in that congratulatory address to the good Lord 
Lovelace, which began with these remarkable 
words, " Your Lordship has not one virtue or more, 
but a complete accomplishment of all perfections. 

» Smith's N. J., 379. 



»l 



78 WILLIAM PINHORNE. 

This was sufficiently discreditable even when ad- 
dressed to Lord Lovelace, but Grahame — who is 
usually accurate — makes the matter worse, by sup- 
posing that it was used in reference to Cornbury 
himself. 1 

Had Lord Lovelace lived however, Cornbury 's 
Councillors — notwithstanding their sycophancy — 
would probably have met with as little favor at his 
hands, as they did at those of his successor, Go- 
vernor Hunter. But his sudden and premature 
death, 2 suspended for a time the storm of indigna- 
tion which was ready to burst upon them. It ex- 
tinguished too the fond hopes which had been 
awakened by the auspicious commencement of his 
administration, and wrapped the whole colony in 
grief. " That good man," said the Assembly in an 
address to Governor Hunter, " lived long enough to 
know how much the Province had been oppressed, 
but not long enough to remove the causes." 

Upon the death of Lord Lovelace, the govern- 
ment devolved upon Lieutenant Governor Ingolds- 
by. He was a dull, heavy man, and almost as odious 
to the people of New Jersey as Lord Cornbury had 



' Grahame's Col. Hist., I. 488. 1709, of a disorder contracted in 

2 This nobleman, whose accession crossing the ferry at his first arrival 

to the government was hailed with in the city of New York. — Smith's N. 

universal joy, died on the 5th of May, Y., 191. 



WILLIAM PINHORNE. 



79 



been. The most earnest remonstrances therefore 
were made to the Queen for his removal, to which 
she at last yielded. But before the arrival of ano- 
ther Governor, Pinhorne, who was the President of 
the Council, exercised the powers of Commander in 
Chief. He was soon superseded, however, by the 
arrival of Governor Hunter j but still remained a 
member of Council, together with most of his old 
associates. 

Governor Hunter made every effort in his pow- 
er to allay the unhappy divisions which existed in 
the colony. In his first address to the House of 
Assembly, he thus expressed himself: — 

" I am little used to make speeches, so you shall 
not be troubled with a long one ; if honesty is the 
best policy, plainness must be the best oratory ; so 
to deal plainly with you, so long as these unchris- 
tian divisions, which her majesty has thought to 
deserve her repeated notice, reign amongst you, I 
shall have small hopes of a happy issue to our 
meeting. 

" This is an evil which every body complains 
of, but few take the right method to remedy it ; let 
every man begin at home, and weed the rancor out 
of his own mind, and the work is done at once. 

" Leave disputes of property to the laws, and 
injuries to the avenger of them ; and like good sub- 



80 WILLIAM PINHORNE. 

jects, and good Christians, join hearts and hands 
for the common good." 

But the spirit of party was not so easily laid. 
He soon found that it was absolutely necessary, in 
order to propitiate the Assembly, that Pinhorne 
and his associates should be removed from the 
Council. The House went so far as to declare, 
that so long as these individuals remained in places 
of trust, they could not think their persons or pro- 
perty safe, and that if continued, they would be 
compelled with their families to desert the Pro- 
vince, and seek some safer place of abode. 1 This 
savors much of extravagance, and must be regard- 
ed as a mere ebullition of party feeling. 

The truth is, there existed in the colony at this 
time two distinctly formed parties, and it is impos- 
sible to do justice to the character of those of 
whom we are speaking, without bearing this fact 
in mind. We are accustomed to deplore the exist- 
ence of party spirit at the present day, and the 
sway which it exercises over the best men ; and to 
think, and speak, as if it were an evil peculiar in 

1 The Assembly, in their Address, and Jeremiah Basse. Governor Hun- 
mention the names of the individuals ter at once dismissed most of them 
whom they were desirous of having from office, and when he next met 
removed from places of trust in the the Assembly, he told them he be- 
Province. They were William Pin- lieved they would not be sorry to meet 
home, Roger Mompesson, Daniel him in such good company. — Smith' t 
Coxe, Richard Townley, Peter Son- N. J., 402. 
mans, Hugh Huddy, William Hall, 



EARLY FORMATION OF PARTIES. 



81 



some measure to our own times. It may be some 
consolation to find, that nearly a century and a half 
ago, while the colony was almost in its infancy, 
and with a population composed in great part of 
quiet Quakers and peaceful Puritans, this spirit was 
as rife and as rampant as it has ever been since ; 
that offices — which one would have thought were 
scarce worth the having — -were sought after with 
quite as much avidity as they are now ; and that 
political parties pursued each other with a ferocity, 
to which we are absolutely strangers. 1 The domi- 
nant party, it is true, did not, as in the mother 
country, pass bills of attainder, confiscate the es- 
tates, and cut off the heads of their opponents ; but 
they expelled them from the Assembly, declared 
them incapable of sitting, and thundered against 
them with all the artillery of informations and in- 
dictments. 

After his removal from the Council, Pinhorne 
retired into private life, and does not appear to 



1 The violence with which party with the wits of the Augustan age of 
contests were at this time waged in English literature, when engaged in 
the mother country, seems to have political controversy. Private char- 
communicated itself to the colonies, acter, which is now almost invariably 
" Complaints," says Lord Campbell respected, was then attacked with un- 
in his Life of Lord Somers, " are still feeling exaggerations of what was 
made, and sometimes with justice, of true, and with unmixed inventions of 
the licentiousness of our periodical malignant falsehood." — Lives of the 
writers ; but modern libellers are Lord Chancellors, IV. 189. Am. ed. 
mild, candid, and cautious, compared 



82 TRIAL OF THOMAS TURNBULL. 

have taken any further part in the public affairs 
of the Colony. He lived, however, for some years 
afterwards. His will bears date on the 10th of May, 
1719, and was proved on the 12th of April, 1720. 
Between these two periods he must of course have 
died. He left behind him one son, John, who was 
an attorney at law, and for some years Clerk of the 
House of Assembly ; but he did not long survive 
his father. 

Pinhorne and Mompesson were the only Judges 
of the Supreme Court during the administration of 
Lord Cornbury. A faithful report of the decisions 
of that tribunal, during this period, would form a 
curious and an interesting volume. I am afraid, 
however, it would not be deemed of very high au- 
thority. Some of the earlier proceedings of the 
Court have already been adverted to. One of the 
last cases before it while Pinhorne was on the 
Bench, was that of Thomas Turnbull, against whom 
an Information had been exhibited for speaking 
scandalous words of Lord Cornbury. He com- 
plained to the Court that he could get no attorney 
to defend him, although he had offered to pay them 
their fees. This may seem strange ; for attorneys 
by this time abounded, and fees were not very plen- 
tiful. But perhaps the lawyers themselves stood in 
fear of an Information, if they ventured to appear 



JEREMIAH BASSE. 83 

against Cornbury. The Court however assigned 
the perilous task of defending Turnbull, to one of 
the attorneys who was in attendance. The course 
which he pursued, was a safe one for himself, if not 
for his client. He advised Turnbull to plead guil- 
ty, and throw himself upon the mercy of the Court. 
He did so, and then the Court pronounced upon 
him the following sentence : " That you, Thomas 
Turnbull, do go to his Excellency and beg his par- 
don for your offence, and then be imprisoned for 
three months." 1 But before the term of his impri- 
sonment had expired, Lord Cornbury himself was 
the tenant of a jail, into which he had been thrown 
by his exasperated creditors upon his degradation 
from office, and from which he was never released, 
until by the death of his father, the Earl of Claren- 
don, he was elevated to the peerage, and invested 
with the dignity of an hereditary legislator of Great 
Britain. 2 

The removal of Cornbury, was the signal for a 
series of prosecutions againt those who had held 
office under him. Jeremiah Basse, who had been 
Clerk of Council, Secretary of the Province, and 
Prothonotary of the Supreme Court, was select- 
ed as the first victim. He was indicted for per- 

1 Minutes of Supreme Court. Biographia Britannica. Lord Corn- 

* Grahame's Col. Hist., I. 457. bury died in 1723. 



84 PETER SONMANS. 

jury, for altering the rules of the Supreme Court, 
and for taking some unwarrantable liberties with 
the book of Freeholders. Peter Sonmans too, was 
indicted for perjury, and other alleged offences. 
Fortunately — at least for them, if not for the cause 
of justice — these indictments did not come on to be 
tried, until Mompesson was again upon the Bench 
of the Supreme Court. They were both acquitted; 
but the House of Assembly, nevertheless, did not 
hesitate to express their belief in the truth of the 
charges, and in reference to Sonmans, they scrupled 
not to declare, that he owed his escape to a packed 
jury. They presented an address to Governor 
Hunter, praying him to remove Sonmans from the 
Council, and arraying against him a long list of ac- 
cusations. 

But Sonmans was not a man to sit down quietly 
under these attacks. He was a native of Holland, 
had been educated at Leyden, and held considera- 
ble offices under the Prince of Orange, after he be- 
came William the Third. He was a son of Arent 
Sonmans, one of the twenty-four Proprietors, who 
was shot by a highwayman, on his journey from 
Scotland to London in company with Robert Bar- 
clay. Peter succeeded to his father's estates, and 
thus became a large Proprietor of East Jersey. 
He was Surveyor General for some years, a mem- 



PETER SONMANS. 85 

ber of Council, a Judge of the Court of Common 
Pleas, and a Representative from the county of Ber- 
gen in the House of Assembly. From the charges 
thus preferred against him, he published an elabo- 
rate vindication of himself, which has come down 
to us. It is a production of some vigor and ability, 
and not without its value, as letting us into the his- 
tory of the times. Of the merits of the contro- 
versy, it is impossible for us, at this late day, 
to form a correct judgment; but we may gather 
something of the spirit and tone of the perform- 
ance by what he says of Lord Cornbury. He af- 
fects to be utterly ignorant of any arbitrary mea- 
sures that Cornbury ever made use of; speaks of 
not having had much of his Lordship's conversa- 
tion, as if that had been a deprivation ; and de- 
scribes him as a nobleman of " extraordinary quali- 
fications, and great sagacity." It was some proof of 
his intrepidity at least, thus to stand up as the apol- 
ogist for Lord Cornbury. It shows too, that odious 
and despicable as was the character of that noble- 
man, he was not without his friends and admirers. 

In reference to Jeremiah Basse, we shall find 
him, some years afterwards, turning the tables upon 
his adversaries, and letting them see, that this plan 
of getting up indictments against political oppo- 
nents, was a game at which two parties could play. 



86 THOMAS GORDON— SCOTCH EMIGRANTS. 

The successor of Roger Mompesson, as Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court, was Thomas Gor- 
don. His judicial career was so brief, that I ought 
not, perhaps, to say much of him in this connexion. 
And yet, he filled so large a place in the early an- 
nals of our State, and his memory is on so many 
accounts entitled to be held in respect, that I am 
sure I shall be pardoned for throwing together a 
few particulars relating to him. 

There is no portion of our ancestors, of whom 
we may feel more justly proud, than of those who 
came hither from Scotland. They were for the 
most part of a class superior both to the Dutch 
and English emigrants. Grahame, himself a Scotch- 
man — and the author of by far the best colonial 
history of the United States that has yet been pub- 
lished — observes, that " a great many inhabitants 
of Scotland emigrated to East Jersey, and enriched 
American society with a valuable accession of vir- 
tue refined by adversity, and of piety invigorated 
by patriotism." Many of them were men of pro- 
perty, of family, and of education. The more 
wealthy were usually accompanied by a numerous 
retinue of servants and dependants. 

One of the most respectable of these Scottish 
emigrants, was Thomas Gordon. He was a native 
of Pitlochie — a place linked by many associations 



THOMAS GORDON. 



87 



with our early history — and is supposed to have 
been not remotely connected with the Duke of 
Gordon. Involved in some of the political troubles 
of his own country, and influenced by the flattering 
representations of Robert Barclay, and the other 
Scottish Proprietors, he came here with his family, 
some time in the year 1684. Soon after his arri- 
val, he purchased a plantation in the neighborhood 
of what is now called the Scotch Plains, and thither 
he removed with his wife, children, and servants. 
He became a large Proprietor of East Jersey, and 
filled various offices of honor and trust under the 
Proprietary Government — such as Deputy Secre- 
tary for the Proprietors, Clerk of the Court of 
Common Right, Register of the Court of Chance- 
ry, Judge of Probate, and an officer of Customs at 
Amboy. In 1698, he was Attorney General of the 
Province of East Jersey, and in 1702, was appoint- 
ed by the Proprietors their Chief Secretary and 
Register. He was a representative from the city 
of Perth Amboy in the first Assembly that was held 
after the Surrender, and he continued to represent 
it until the year 1710. Upon the death of Samuel 
Jenings, he was chosen Speaker of the House. He 
was decided in his opposition to the administration 
of Lord Cornbury, but he does not appear to have 
been betrayed into any intemperance of language 



88 THOMAS GORDON. 

or conduct. Upon the resignation of Mompesson, 
he was appointed by Lord Lovelace Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court. His commission bears date 
on the 28th of April, 1709, and at the May Term 
following, he took his seat upon the Bench. This 
office, however, he retained but a few months. He 
had probably not been bred to the bar, although 
he had no doubt acquired some legal knowledge in 
the various judicial stations which he had held, and 
was regularly licensed as an Attorney in 1704. It 
is not to be wondered at then, that we find him so 
soon relinquishing his seat upon the Bench of the 
Supreme Court, and accepting the appointment of 
Receiver General and Treasurer of the Province — 
the duties of which, he no doubt felt, that he was 
much more adequate to perform. This office he 
held for nearly ten years. In 1713, he was also ap- 
pointed Commissioner, as it was termed, for exe- 
cuting the office of Attorney General, in place of 
Alexander Griffith, who was suspended for " sundry 
misdemeanors, neglects, and contempts of duty." 
When we remember that Alexander Griffith was 
Lord Cornbury's Attorney General, and that he 
filed all his Informations for him, we shall not won- 
der at his having run up a long account of official 
delinquencies. Thomas Gordon died in 1722, and 
was buried in the Episcopal church-yard at Amboy. 



MOMPESSON AGAIN CHIEF JUSTICE. 89 

There is a Latin inscription on the stone, which 
marks the spot of his last resting-place on earth, 
and which commemorates, in touching and grace- 
ful terms, his virtues and his worth. 1 

Upon the retirement of Thomas Gordon from 
the Bench of the Supreme Court, we find Roger 
Mompesson again acting as Chief Justice. This 
may surprise us. But we have seen, that upon the 
death of Lord Lovelace, the administration devolv- 
ed for a time upon Lieutenant Governor Ingoldsby. 
He at once embraced the opportunity, which his 
transient return to power conferred upon him, of re- 
storing to office his old friend and fellow-councillor 
Mompesson. But the Chief Justice did not long 
enjoy his new honors; for upon the arrival of 
Governor Hunter, in 1710, he again surrendered 
his commission, and David Jamison was appointed 
in his stead. 

Governor Hunter, 2 although described by Ban- 

1 A copy of this inscription will be his wit recommended him to the 
found in New Jersey Historical Col- friendship of Addison and Swift. In 
lections by Barber and Howe, p. 309. 1707 he was appointed Lieutenant 

2 Governor Hunter was a native of Governor of Virginia, under the Earl 
Scotland, and when a boy was put ap- of Orkney, but being taken by the 
prentice to an apothecary ; but he French, on his voyage to that colony, 
ran away from his master, and en- he was carried into France, where he 
listed in the British army as a com- remained a prisoner for some time, 
mon soldier. His personal beauty Swift corresponded with him during 
and accomplishments won for him his captivity. In one of his letters 
the affection of a peeress, Lady Hay, to him he thus writes : " Our good 
whom he afterwards married; while friend Mr. Addison has been made 



90 



MOMPESSON AGAIN CHIEF JUSTICE. 



croft as " an adventurer, who came to his govern- 
ment in quest of good cheer," was certainly the 
most popular of all our colonial Governors. In- 
stead of involving himself, as most of his successors 
did, in interminable disputes with refractory As- 
semblies, he studied their humors, accommodated 
himself to their prejudices, and knew how to yield 



Secretary of Ireland ; and unless you 
make haste over, and get my Vir- 
ginian Bishoprick, he will persuade 
me to go with him." And again: 
" Sometimes Mr. Addison and I steal 
to a pint of bad wine, and wish for no 
third person but you." In another 
letter he says, " I am now with Mr. 
Addison, with whom I have fifty times 
drank your health since you left us :" 
and he makes another allusion to the 
bishoprick of Virginia. These allu- 
sions are explained by the fact, that 
while Swift was a whig, and a friend 
of Lord Somers, it was seriously pro- 
posed that he should be made Bishop 
of Virginia, and accompany Governor 
Hunter to the colony. Had this pro- 
ject been carried out, our Colonial 
Governors might have exclaimed, as 
that profligate Peer, the Earl of 
Wharton, when appointed Lord Lieu- 
nant of Ireland, is said to have done, 
upon Swift's being recommended to 
him by Lord Somers as a fit person 
to be his chaplain ; " We cannot af- 
ford to countenance such fellows ; 
we ourselves have no character to 
spare." 

Although Governor Hunter became 
ultimately popular in New York, yet 



for some years, he had much difficul- 
ty with the Assembly in that Pro- 
vince. Thus he writes to Swift : 
" Here is the finest air to live upon in 
the universe ; and if our trees and 
birds could speak, and our Assembly- 
men be silent, the finest conversa- 
tion too." He complains of being 
used like a dog, avers that Sancho 
Panza was but a type of him, and 
says, " I have spent three years of 
life in such torment and vexation, that 
nothing in life can ever make amends 
for it." 

In 1728, he was appointed Gover- 
nor of Jamaica, in the room of the 
Duke of Portland, and died there in 
1734. " He had a ready art of pro- 
curing money," says Smith ; " few 
loved it more." This led him into 
gambling speculations, which proving 
unsuccessful, he was often reduced to 
straits. He had some literary preten- 
sions. He was the author of the fa- 
mous " Letter on Enthusiasm," as- 
cribed by some to Swift, by others to 
Shaftesbury. He is also said to have 
written a farce, called Androboros. — 
Swift's Works. Smith's IV. Y. 
Smith's IV. /. Lives of the Lord 
Chancellors, IV. 189. Am. ed. 



DAVID JAMISON CHIEF JUSTICE. 91 

with a good grace where he could not control. 
" Your administration," said the Assembly of New 
Jersey, in one of their last addresses to him, " has 
been a continued series of justice and moderation." 
" You have governed," said the Assembly of New 
York, " well and wisely, like a prudent magistrate, 
like an affectionate parent. We have seen many 
Governors, and may see more, and as none of 
those, who had the honor to serve in your station, 
were ever so justly fixed in the affections of the 
governed, so those to come will acquire no mean 
reputation, when it can be said of them, their con- 
duct has been like yours." 

He drew around him as his friends and advisers, 
men of the highest character and influence in both 
Provinces. His appointments to office were for the 
most part made, from among those who had distin- 
guished themselves by their opposition to Lord Corn- 
bury. Lewis Morris, who had been the leader of the 
opposition in New Jersey, was made Chief Justice in 
New York ; and David Jamison, a popular lawyer in 
New York, was made Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of New Jersey. Jamison had distinguished 
himself by his able and intrepid defence of McKemie, 
the Presbyterian clergyman, whose case has already 
been referred to. He filled the office of Chief Jus- 
tice during the whole of Governor Hunter's admin- 



92 CHIEF JUSTICE JAMISON INDICTED. 

istration, and appears to have discharged its duties 
with credit to himself, and satisfaction to the pub- 
lic. His associate upon the Bench was Thomas 
Farmar, of whom, as he subsequently became Chief 
Justice, we may have occasion hereafter to speak. 

The administration of Governor Hunter was a 
period of almost unbroken tranquillity. Upon one 
occasion only, was this harmony seriously inter- 
rupted. On the fourth day of April, 1716, a new 
Assembly was convened at Amboy ; and the party, 
who had been driven from power for their adhesion 
to Cornbury, seemed about to regain their ascend- 
ency. While their opponents had been slumbering 
in fancied security, they had evidently rallied, and 
had succeeded in throwing into the House a large 
number of their friends. Daniel Coxe, who had 
been one of the most obnoxious members of Corn- 
bury's Council, was chosen Speaker. The conse- 
quence was, that the House became at once em- 
broiled in a controversy with the Governor, and 
the business of the session was obstructed and de- 
layed. Nor was this all. Flushed with their vic- 
tory, and emboldened by success, prosecutions were 
at once set on foot against the principal officers of 
the Province. 

Amongst the rest, an Indictment was found 
against Jamison, the Chief Justice. The occasion 



CHIEF JUSTICE JAMISON INDICTED. 



93 



of it was this. At the November Term of the Su- 
preme Court, held at Burlington in 1715, a grand- 
juror was challenged for his refusal to take the 
oath. He alleged that he was a Quaker, and 
claimed the benefit of an act of Assembly, which 
had been passed a few years before, and which 
provided, that the solemn affirmation of the people 
called Quakers, should be accepted in lieu of an 
oath. But on the other hand it was contended, 
that this act of Assembly had been virtually repeal- 
ed by an act of Parliament, passed in the first year 
of the reign of George the First, by which, it was 
insisted, Quakers refusing to be sworn, were ex- 
cluded from serving as jurors. This position was 
maintained with much zeal by many of the lawyers, 
more especially by those who had been the friends 
of Lord Cornbury, and who shared with him in his 
aversion to the Quakers. The Chief Justice how- 
ever decided, that this was an entire perversion of 
the statute of George the First, and that it never 
could have been designed to repeal or invalidate 
the act of Assembly. He therefore overruled the 
exception, and directed the Clerk to take the affir- 
mation of the grand-juror. But this the Clerk, pre- 
suming to be wiser than the Court, positively re- 
fused to do. The consequence was, that there was 
no Grand Jury sworn or affirmed during that Term. 



94 SPEECH OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE. 

The Chief Justice of course pronounced the Clerk 
guilty of a contempt of Court, and imposed a fine 
upon him. He could do no less ; he might have 
done much more. And yet for this, he was actu- 
ally indicted, at the next Court of Quarter Ses- 
sions, and that too in the Quaker county of Bur- 
lington. At the next Term of the Supreme Court, 
held in May 1716, before the Grand Jury were 
sworn, the Chief Justice in open Court delivered a 
speech, in which he calmly reviewed the whole pro- 
ceeding, and with much dignity vindicated the 
course which he had pursued. A copy of this 
speech has been preserved, and it reflects no little 
credit upon the temper, as well as the talents of the 
Chief Justice. 

Governor Hunter, who, if he had some of the 
bluntness, had much of the spirit of the soldier 
about him, felt himself called upon to come to the 
aid of his Chief Justice. He put forth, therefore, 
an address to the public, which he called an answer 
to an argument against the validity and force of a 
certain act of Assembly, but which looks very 
much like a Proclamation, declaratory of what the 
law was, according to his understanding of it. 

" Whereas," he says, " there has been of late 
an objection, without any foundation in law or rea- 
son, started against the people called Quakers be- 



GOVERNOR HUNTER'S ADDRESS. 95 

ing employed in any places or posts of profit or 
trust in this Province ; which objection, in my opin- 
ion, has a tendency of no less consequence than 
the rendering the municipal laws thereof of no 
force or effect for the future, and subverting the 
civil government; I have judged it necessary for 
the satisfaction of the minds of the scrupulous, and 
stopping the mouths of the clamorous and sedi- 
tious, until a more effectual method may be pur- 
sued, if necessity so require, to set that affair in so 
clear a light, that the half-sighted may see, and the 
half-witted be convinced of the unreasonableness 
and absurdity of that objection. The rest can see 
and understand without my help." He speaks of 
the woful condition into which the plantations 
would be plunged, if such laws as a Legislature, 
lawfully constituted, might enact for the good gov- 
ernment and ease of the subject, should by impli- 
cation or construction be deemed to be repealed, 
upon the bare suggestion of any petty attorney, 
who may excuse himself by affirming that he has a 
right to say what he thinks fit for the benefit of his 
client. He concludes in this wise : " To sum up 
the whole I do affirm, that an Act of Assembly, en- 
titled, ' An Act that the solemn affirmation and de- 
claration of the people called Quakers, shall be ac- 
cepted instead of an oath in the usual form,' &c, 



96 GOVERNOR HUNTER'S ADDRESS. 

passed in the last Assembly of this Province, stands 
in full force and vigor, being passed by the Sove- 
reign's especial command, not having been disal- 
lowed or disapproved by the Sovereign, nor repealed 
or made void by any subsequent act of Parliament or 
Assembly ; and that by virtue of that act, Quakers, 
or reputed Quakers, when duly qualified as that act 
directs, are capable of offices of profit and trust in 
this Province ; and that the asserting or affirming 
the contrary, serves only to open a gap to pretend- 
ers to law, to plead against the validity of any or 
all your municipal laws, when either their selfish 
views, or perverse purposes, may suggest to them 
so very ridiculous and absurd a notion, and to 
weaken (as I verily believe it is intended) the ad- 
ministration, and unhinge or dissolve the Govern- 
ment." Even if his Excellency had not been in the 
right, it would have been somewhat difficult to an- 
swer such arguments. 1 

1 This address of Governor Hunter, Governor Gooken. He held that their 
together with the speech of the Chief act of Assembly was absolutely re- 
Justice, and his charge to the Grand pealed by the statute of George the 
Jury at Burlington, were published at First ; and refused to permit Quakers 
the time in a pamphlet, a copy of to serve as jurors, to give evidence in 
which is to be found in the State Li- criminal cases, or to hold any office 
brary. of profit or trust in the Province. 

The same difficulty, with regard to This led to a very long representation 

the affirmations of Quakers, arose in from the General Assembly, distin- 

Pennsylvania, but was much more guished by that " ready flow of grave 

serious and embarrassing there, in yet fretful rhetoric and indefatiga- 

consequence of the course pursued by ble reiteration/' of which Grahame 



JEREMIAH BASSE. 97 

The Indictment against the Chief Justice was 
removed into the Supreme Court, and at the Term 
of May, 1716, Judge Farmar presiding, it was on 
motion of the Attorney General ordered, that the 
Indictment be quashed, it being found against the 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, for doing his 
duty in the execution of his office ; and it was fur- 
ther ordered, that process do issue against all such 
persons as were in any way instrumental in procur- 
ing the same. 1 

The individual who seems to have been chiefly 
instrumental in stirring up these prosecutions, was 
Mr. Jeremiah Basse, Lord Cornbury's Secretary* 
A double motive probably animated him ; for while 
he was paying off some old political scores, he was 
at the same time indulging his zeal for the Church, 
which he thought, or affected to believe, was in 
danger, from the concessions made to the Quakers. 
Basse, however, was an attorney of the Supreme 
Court, and liable therefore to be dealt with in a very 
summary way, for his behavior upon this occasion. 
Nor was the Court reluctant to exercise the power 



speaks. In the course of it, they 1725 that the difficulty was finally 

refer, with marked approbation, to the settled in Pennsylvania. - Proud's 

address of Governor Hunter and the Fa., II. pp. 74-93. Grahame's Col 

" speech" of the Chief Justice of New Hist-, II. 50. 
Jersey, and quote largely from both » Minutes of Supreme Court, 
those documents. It was not until 



98 BASSE SUSPENDED BY SUPREME COURT. 

to which he was thus amenable. For no sooner 
was the Indictment against the Chief Justice quash- 
ed, than the following order was made : " That 
Jeremiah Basse, one of the attorneys of this Court, 
for being instrumental in sowing discord and sedi- 
tion among divers of his Majesty's subjects within 
the Province, and also in aiding and procuring cer- 
tain Indictments to be found against the Chief Jus- 
tice of this Court, and the principal officers of this 
Province, by a Grand Jury of an inferior jurisdic- 
tion, for doing their duty in their respective offices, 
be suspended from practising in this Court, and all 
other Courts in this Province ; and that the Attor- 
ney General do issue process against him for a mis- 
demeanor." 1 

Basse would not probably have ventured upon 
these proceedings, if he had not been countenanced 
and encouraged by the party, now in the majority 
in the Assembly. T* heir power, however, was not 
destined to be of long duration. Governor Hunter, 
iinding that the House was not disposed to dis- 
patch any business, prorogued it. When summon- 
ed to meet again, nine only of the members made 
their appearance. The Speaker and most of his 
political friends absented themselves. This was 

1 Minutes of Supreme Court. 



HARMONY RESTORED. 



done to embarrass the administration, by prevent- 
ing any supplies from being voted for the support 
of Government. After waiting some days, the 
Governor was requested to issue his warrant com- 
manding the attendance of the absent members. 
Four of them presently appeared, and then, a quo- 
rum being formed, they proceeded to choose a new 
Speaker,°John Kinsey, 1 expelled the absent mem- 
bers, and ordered writs for new elections to supply 
their places. Some of them were returned a se- 
cond time, but they were declared incapable of sit- 
ting. Harmony was thus restored, and every thing 
went on smoothly again. 2 The Governor told them 
he heartily approved of the worthy choice they had 
made of a Speaker; and that the conduct of the 
gentleman who had last filled the chair, must have 
convinced them, that there was a combination be- 
tween him and his associates to defeat all the pur- 
poses of their meeting. The Assembly in reply 
echoed back the same sentiment. "Our late 
Speaker," say they, "has added this one instance 
of folly to his past demeanor, to convince us 
and the world, that in all stations, whether of a 
councillor, a private man, or a representative, his 

. He was the father of John Kin- and the grandfather of James Kinsey, 
sey, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice of New Jersey. 
2 Smith's New Jersey, 406. 



100 BASSE RETURNED TO THE ASSEMBLY. 

study has been to disturb the quiet and tranquillity 
of this Province, and act in contempt of laws and 
government. Our expulsion of him, we hope, 
evinces that we are not the partisans of his heat 
and disaffection to the present government." 

Basse was returned to the House of Assembly, 
in place of one of the expelled members. He came 
as representative from Cape May, to which county 
he seems to have taken refuge, upon that dispersion 
of his party, which followed the removal of Corn- 
bury. Whether ashamed of his late conduct, or 
sensible that he was in a minority, he appears to 
have demeaned himself creditably ; and on the fif- 
teenth of January, 1716, made a speech in the 
House which, from its having been entered at large 
on the journal, must have been deemed quite an 
effort in the way of parliamentary eloquence. As 
it is the only speech of that day which has been 
handed down to us, it is a matter of some curiosity. 1 
The theme of his discourse is the financial condi- 
tion of the Province, which at that time was (de- 
plorable enough. This he ascribes to four causes ; 
the fruitless expeditions to Canada, intestine dis- 
cords and dissensions, negligence of public officers, 

1 This speech will be found in a of pamphlets, some of which are of 

volume in the State Library, in which much interest. It is lettered on the 

are bound up, with the votes of the back, Votes and State Papers. Vol. I. 
Assembly, a miscellaneous collection 



SPEECH OF BASSE IN THE ASSEMBLY. JQ1 

and scarcity of money. What he says about dis- 
cords and divisions may amuse us, after the speci- 
mens we have had of his own behavior. "Hinc 
illce lacrymaz" says he, " here is the source and 
rise of all our misfortunes, our divisions, heats, dis- 
cords, and animosities. We are using one another 
as the heathen did the primitive Christians, dress- 
ing each other up in the skins of wolves and bears, 
and then beating them as such." " Would to God, 
Mr. Speaker," he exclaims, " we could each of us 
learn to look upon another to be better than him- 
self; to let that charity, which is the golden bond 
that connects heaven and earth together, (and 
without which the most splendid gifts, natural or 
acquired endowments, are but as the sounding brass 
and tinkling cymbal,) govern both our lives and 
actions. We complain, Mr. Speake'r, of bad crops, 
blasts, mildews, and sometimes of epidemical dis- 
tempers raging amongst us. It is no wonder if our 
common Parent sends these scourges, that by these 
means he might teach us to love one another. Let 
us then take that advice, which his Excellency 
once gave the representative body of this Pro- 
vince ; let us leave disputes to the laws, and injuries 
to the avenger of them ; let each one weed the rancor 
out of his own heart. Let each of us look upon par- 
ties and divisions as a common enemy, a common 



102 BASSE MADE ATTORNEY GENERAL. 

evil, and use our utmost endeavors to quench that 
fire that has hitherto so raged in this Province, 
that it has more or less affected all persons, all re- 
lations, our bodies, our reputations, and our es- 
tates. Let us unite in love, and then, how inex- 
pressibly beautiful would such a union be? How 
would it strengthen our interests, advance our es- 
tates, restore our decayed credit, and make us a 
truly happy Province." 

All this is very fine ; and yet this is the man 
who, but a few months before, had been thrown 
over the bar for sowing discord and sedition in the 
Province ; and was for turning every thing upside 
down, because Quakers were permitted to serve as 
jurors, and exercise offices of profit and trust. So 
much easier was it then, as it is now, to teach by 
precept than example. Basse seems by his course 
in the Assembly to have acquired the confidence of 
Governor Hunter, by whom he was appointed At- 
torney General in 1719. His commission was re- 
newed by Governor Burnet in 1721. He died in 
1725. His will, which was dated in January, 1724, 
breathes a spirit of ardent devotion to the Church 
of England, which he denominates " the best of 
churches," of which he calls himself an unworthy 
member, and in whose communion he expresses a 
desire to die, and to be buried according to its rites 
and ceremonies. 



JAMISON'S CHARGE TO THE GRAND JURY. 103 

No other events of importance occurred while 
Jamison was Chief Justice, nor have any of his 
judicial opinions been preserved. We have how- 
ever a copy of his charge to the Grand Jury at 
Burlington, in May Term, 1716, from which it 
might be inferred, that he was quite as much of a 
theologian as a lawyer. All his authorities are 
drawn from the Bible, and a very considerable por- 
tion of the charge is made up of passages from the 
Old and New Testament. It is not unlikely that 
he was a descendant of the Puritans, whose ideas 
of criminal jurisprudence were derived from the 
Levitical code, rather than from Hale and Hawkins. 
In the list of capital offences given by him, we find 
heresy and witchcraft included. Not to have be- 
lieved in witchcraft at that day, would, I suppose, of 
itself have been deemed heresy. But I am happy 
to say, that so far as I have been able to discover, 
no prosecution for this offence ever stained our 
judicial records. 1 

1 However devoutly our fathers cover by the divining-rod the hidden 

may have believed in the existence of treasures of the Bucaniers." — Ban- 

witches, they suffered them to live croft's U. S., II. 393. 

unmolested, and the consequence was, There was, however, a trial for 

that in New Jersey, as in Penn's do- witchcraft in Pennsylvania, as early 

main, " neither demon nor hag ever as 1684, at which Penn presided, 

rode through the air on goat or After a charge from the Governor, 

broomstick ; and the worst acts of the jury rendered the following ver- 

conjuration went no farther than to diet : " The prisoner is guilty of the 

foretell fortunes, mutter powerful common fame of being a witch, but 

spells over quack medicines, or dis- not guilty as she stands indicted." 



104 ASSEMBLY ADDRESS GOV. BURNET. 

Governor Burnet, who succeeded Hunter in 
1719, continued Jamison in office. But although he 
had been Chief Justice of New Jersey for so many 
years, he still resided in the City of New York. 
This was felt to be a great grievance, and subjected 
attorneys and suitors to much trouble and expense. 
Governor Hunter, however, contrived to keep the 
Assembly in such good humor, that no public com- 
plaint was made of it in his time. But in 1723, the 
House presented an address to Governor Burnet, 
representing that, as it was not the happiness of 
the Province to have his Excellency constantly re- 
siding among them, it would be a great satisfaction 
that the Chief Justice should. They speak of the 
hardship and inconvenience of being obliged to go 
from the most distant parts of the Province to the 
City of New York, to put in special bail, or get the 
allowance of a habeas corpus, certiorari, or other re- 
medial writ ; and as there were persons living in the 
Province, who were quite competent to execute the 
office, they express an earnest hope that the Go- 
vernor would be pleased to select some one among 
them for the Chief Justice. The Governor took 
the address in good part, and promised a speedy 
compliance with their wishes ; and thereupon the 
House resolved, that there should be paid to a 
Chief Justice, who would ride the Circuit of the 



WILLIAM TRENT APPOINTED CHIEF JUSTICE. 1Q5 

several counties of the Province, the sum of one 
hundred pounds yearly, in addition to his ordinary 
salary. 

William Trent, who was at that time Speaker of 
the House of Assembly, was at once appointed Chief 
Justice in place of Jamison. He was not a lawyer 
by profession, but had filled for many years a high 
judicial post in Pennsylvania ; and was withal a man 
of strong sense, of business habits, and of strict in- 
tegrity. He too was a native of Scotland — from 
the town of Inverness — and with a brother, whose 
name was James, came to this country at an early- 
day. He settled in Philadelphia, where he became 
an extensive and successful merchant. The house 
which he there occupied is still standing, although 
it retains few traces of its ancient grandeur. It 
was long known as " the slated-roof house of Wil- 
liam Trent." It had been the city residence of 
William Penn and his family. It afterwards be- 
came a celebrated boarding-house, and John Adams, 
and other members of the first Congress, lodged in 
it. Those who are curious in such matters, may 
find a full account of it in Watson's Annals of Phi- 
ladelphia. Trent was for many years a Judge of 
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and Speaker 
of the House of Assembly. 

In 1714, he purchased Mahlon Stacey's planta- 



106 WILLIAM TRENT. 

tion of eight hundred acres, lying on both sides of 
the Assanpink, upon which the cities of Trenton 
and South Trenton now stand. To this place he 
removed some years afterwards, and in 1721 was 
chosen a representative to the Assembly from 
the county of Burlington. In 1723, he was made 
Speaker of the House, and in November of the 
same year, was appointed Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court — his commission reciting, that the 
letters patent granted unto David Jamison, the late 
Chief Justice, were disannulled. He took his seat 
on the Bench at Burlington, on the fourth Tuesday 
of March, 1724. 

He did not, however, long live to enjoy the ho- 
nors, or discharge the duties of Chief Justice. He 
died suddenly, from an attack of apoplexy, on the 
twenty-fifth of December, 1724, universally beloved 
and much lamented. None of his descendants, I 
believe, remain, but his name will long live in the 
memory of Jerseymen, for it is borne by the capital 
of our State. 1 Some years before his death, a 
town was laid out upon his estate, which, in honor 



1 The name of William Trent fre- as a " noted churchman," but always 

quently occurs in the " Logan letters," in terms of respect. In one of his 

in the possession of the American Phi- letters, he refers feelingly to his sud- 

losophical Society. He is commended den death, as "another instance how 

for his" thorough skill and insight into little anxious we ought to be about 

trade." James Logan speaks of him the affairs of this world." 



WILLIAM TRENT. 107 

of him, was called Trenfs Town, the name by 
which it was originally known. It had before, says 
Smith, been significantly called " Little Worth." 
It was, however, at the death of the Chief Justice, 
a town only in name — containing, as it did, but two 
or three houses. The spot on which the City Hall 
now stands, was then in the midst of a dense 
woods, through which a solitary foot-path wound 
its way to the old mill — then called Stacey's, but 
now known as Wain's Mill. In 1719, the Courts 
for the County of Hunterdon were held here for 
the first time. Trent presented to the county the 
lot on which the first Court House was built. It 
was the lot now owned by the Trenton Banking 
Company, and on which their banking house 
stands. It was not until 1790, that Trenton was 
made the seat of government of New Jersey. 1 

In tracing the history of our Courts, we have 
come to the administration of Governor Burnet; 
and it seems to be a fitting place in which to speak 
of the Court of Chancery. For we are told it was 
a Court in which Governor Burnet took especial de- 
light, and in which he loved to display his parts ; 



1 Barber and Howe's N. J. Hist, nally published in the Trenton State 

Col., ^83. The historical notice of Gazette, and written by the Rev. Eli 

Trenton contained in this work, is F. Cooley, pastor of the Presbyterian 

taken from a series of articles, origi- church in Ewing. 



]08 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 



and although no lawyer, 1 yet being a man of books, 
and fond of the society of men of letters, he is said 
to have made in it a very respectable figure. 3 

The Court of Chancery, for some reason or 
other, seems never to have been a popular favorite 



1 In the Encyclopaedia Americana, 
II. 336, Governor Burnet is said to 
have been " originally bred to the 
law." But however this may be, he 
never pursued his profession. He 
was the eldest son of the celebrated 
Bishop Burnet, and was born at the 
Hague in March, 1688. He was 
named after William the Prince of 
Orange, who stood his godfather. 
His fortune, which was at one time 
considerable, was wrecked in the 
South Sea scheme, and like most 
royal Governors, he was poor when 
he came to this country. The love 
of money, however, was a vice from 
which he was entirely free, and he 
carried nothing away with him but his 
books. In 1728, he was removed 
from the government of New York 
and New Jersey, and transferred to 
that of Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire. Although the son of a 
bishop, and said to have been a man 
of piety, yet he was of a convivial dis- 
position, and by no means distin- 
guished by his seriousness of charac- 
ter. His levity shocked the good 
people of New England. Upon one 
occasion, he was dining with an old 
charter senator, and being asked, 
whether it would be most agreeable 
to his Excellency that grace should 
be said standing or sitting ; the gov- 



ernor replied, " Standing or sitting, 
any way or no way, just as you 
please." A deputation was sent to 
conduct him in state to his new gov- 
ernment. They met him on the bor- 
ders of Rhode Island. He complain- 
ed of the long graces that were said 
by the clergymen on the road, and 
asked when they would shorten. One 
of the committee, the facetious Colo- 
nel Tayler, answered, " The graces 
will increase in length till you come 
to Boston ; after that, they will short- 
en till you come to your government 
of New Hampshire, where your Ex- 
cellency will find no grace at all." 

He died in September, 1729, from 
the effects of a violent cold contracted- 
by the oversetting of his carriage up- 
on the causeway at Cambridge. He 
was a man of superior talents, and of 
an amiable character. He published 
some astronomical observations in the 
transactions of the Royal Society, and 
an essay on scripture prophecy. — 
Allen's Biog. Die. Belknap. Hutch- 
inson. Grahame. 

2 Smith's N. Y. 240. Governor 
Burnet however had one foible, which 
would seem to have disqualified him 
in some measure, for the duties of a 
Chancellor. He used to say of him- 
self, " I act first, and think after- 
wards." 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 



109 



in this country. 1 The large discretionary power 
which it is thought to confer upon one man ; the 
fact that the people appear to be in some measure 
excluded from it ; and that it altogether dispenses 
with the cherished mode of trial by jury, may per- 
haps account for the prejudice entertained towards 
it. The early annals of New York and Pennsylva- 
nia, abound with manifestations of the jealousy and 
distrust with which this tribunal was regarded. It 
was in 1711, that Governor Hunter first began to 
exercise the office of Chancellor in New York ; but 
it was made a subject of constant complaint and 
remonstrance by the Assembly ; and so unpopular 



1 Even in England the Court of 
Chancery has never been a popular 
tribunal. It has at least always been 
deemed a fair subject for the pen of 
the satirist. Butler, who indeed 
spared nothing, thus writes : 

" Does not in Chancery every man swear, 
What makes best for him in his answer ? 
And whilst their purses can dispute, 
There is no end of th' immortal suit." 

Hudibras, III. Cant. 2. 

Swift represents Gulliver as having 
been almost ruined by a suit in Chan- 
cery, which was decreed for him with 
costs. 

Even the learned Selden thus 
speaks: "Equity is a roguish thing : 
for law we have a measure — know 
what to trust to ; equity is according 
to the conscience of him that is Chan- 
cellor, and as that is larger or nar- 
rower, so is equity. It is all one as 



if they should make the standard of 
the measure we call a foot, a Chan- 
cellor's foot ; what an uncertain mea- 
sure would this be ! One Chancellor 
has a long foot, another a short foot, 
a third an indifferent foot : it is the 
same thing in the Chancellor's con- 
science." — Selden's Table-Talk. 

In fact, it was not until near the 
close of the reign of Charles II. that 
the Court of Chancery was entitled 
to much respect. Lord Chancellor 
Nottingham, who died in 1682, has 
been called the Father of Equity. He 
it was, who first reduced it to a regu- 
lar and cultivated science ; and re- 
deemed it from the disgrace of being 
supposed to depend upon the indivi- 
dual opinion or caprice of the Chan- 
cellor. — Lives of the Lord Chancel- 
lors, III. 329. Am. ed. 



HO COURT OF CHANCERY. 

did it become in that Province, that little or no bu- 
siness was transacted in it for many years. In 
1727, it was resolved by the House of Assembly, 
that the erection of a Court of Chancery in that 
Colony, without the consent of the General Assem- 
bly, was unwarrantable and illegal, a manifest op- 
pression and grievance to the people, and of perni- 
cious consequence to their liberties and properties. 
An ordinance was soon after passed to remedy the 
abuses of the Court, and reduce the fees of its offi- 
cers ; and from that time, until 1756 — when William 
Smith wrote his History of New York — we are in- 
formed that the wheels of the Chancery rusted upon 
their axles, and that its practice was contemned by 
all gentlemen of eminence in the profession. 1 

In 1720, a Court of Chancery was first estab- 
lished in Pennsylvania, by Governor Keith, with 
the concurrence of the Council and Assembly. It 
was declared to be absolutely necessary in the ad- 
ministration of justice, for the purpose of mitigat- 
ing the rigor of the law, whose judgments are tied 
down to fixed and unalterable rules, and for open- 
ing the way to the right and equity of a cause, for 
which the law cannot in all cases make a sufficient 
provision. 2 But it happened, unfortunately, a few 

1 Smith's N. Y., 270. * Proud's Pa., II. 126. 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 



Ill 



years afterwards, that John Kinsey, a Quaker law- 
yer of eminence, and afterwards Chief Justice of 
that Province, having occasion to transact business 
in the Court, appeared with his hat on his head, as 
was the custom with members of his society. The 
Chancellor, Sir William Keith, who stood much 
upon form, ordered his hat to be taken off; which 
was accordingly done by one of the officers of the 
Court. This gave great offence to the Quakers ; 
insomuch, that at a Quarterly Meeting, held in the 
City of Philadelphia, a committee was appointed to 
wait upon the Governor, and present to him an ad- 
dress, in which they gravely complain of the act in 
question, as a direct infringement of their rights 
and liberties. And such was the excitement pro- 
duced, and so loud the clamor that was raised, that 
the Chancellor found it necessary to make a solemn 
order, by which it was provided, that it should be a 
standing rule of the Court of Chancery, for the 
Province of Pennsylvania, in all time to come, 
that any person professing to be one of the people 
called Quakers, should be permitted to address the 
Court, without being obliged to observe the usual 
ceremony of uncovering his head. 1 But however 
satisfactory this concession may have been deemed 

1 Proud's Pa., II. 197. 



112 COURT OF CHANCERY. 

at the time, we find, not many years afterwards, 
that the Court was considered to be " so great a 
nuisance," that it was entirely laid aside ; and from 
that day to this, I believe, there has been no Court 
of Chancery in Pennsylvania. It might be curious 
to inquire, what influence the trifling incident to 
which I have alluded may have had, in bringing 
about such a result ; a result, I may add, which 
has been much regretted by some of the most en- 
lightened jurists of that State. 1 

In New Jersey, however, the Court of Chancery 
has encountered less hostility than in her sister 
States. While there have always been found indi- 
viduals, who have doubted the propriety of its ex- 
istence as a separate tribunal, yet by the great 
mass, not only of the profession, but of the people 
at large, it has ever been deemed a useful and an 
indispensable part of our judicial system. It is 
said in some of our histories, that the first Court 
of Chancery ever held in New Jersey was in 1718. 
It was then, indeed, that the Governor for the first 
time assumed to act as Chancellor without the as- 

1 " The experience of England," their intercourse in the same tribunal, 

says Mr. Binney, in his beautiful Eu- It is the misfortune of Pennsylvania, 

logium on Chief Justice Tilghman, that the want of a Court of Chancery 

" and of most of these States, is bet- has left her tribunals no alternative, 

ter than volumes, to show, that the but that of attempting this difficult 

purity and vigor of both law and incorporation." 
equity, are maintained by preventing 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 



113 



sistance of his Council ; but it is a great mistake 
to suppose that there had been no Court of Chan- 
cery in the Province before. The Ordinance of 
Governor Franklin in 1770, truly declares, "that 
there always has been a Court of Chancery held in 
the Province of New Jersey." Under the Proprie- 
tary Government, it was, as we have seen, a part 
of the Court of Common Right, and continued to be 
held by the same Judges until 1698. How it was 
composed from that time until 1705, does not dis- 
tinctly appear, but there is every reason to believe 
that it was held by the Governor and Council. 1 In 
1705, however, we find Lord Cornbury, by virtue 
of his commission as Governor, and with the ad- 
vice and consent of the Council, passing an Ordi- 
nance, for the erection and establishment of a High 
Court of Chancery in the Province of New Jersey. 
The Ordinance recites, " that it is absolutely ne- 
cessary that a Court of Chancery should be estab- 
lished in this Province, that the subject may find 
remedy in such matters and things as are properly 
cognizable in the said Court, in which the common 
law by reason of its strict rules cannot give relief;" 
and it provides, that the Governor or Lieutenant 
Governor for the time being, and any three of the 



1 Griffith's Law Reg., IV. 1183. 
8 



114 COURT OF CHANCERY. 

Council, shall constitute the said Court; and it 
authorizes them to hear and determine all causes in 
the said Court, which from time to time shall come 
before them, as near as may be, according to the 
usage or custom of the High Court of Chancery in 
the kingdom of England. It was further provided, 
that there should be four stated terms in each year, 
and that the Court should be open on Thursday of 
every week, at Burlington, to hear motions, and 
make rules and orders thereon. 1 

This Ordinance continued in force until Gov- 
ernor Hunter's administration, when he claimed the 
right to exercise the powers of Chancellor alone, 
and without the aid of his Council. This was 
thought to be an undue exercise of authority upon 
his part, and occasioned some complaint at the 
time, but his conduct met with the approbation of 
the King f and under this sanction, and without any 
new Ordinance, so far as I have been able to disco- 
ver, the Governor continued to act as Chancellor 
until 1770. 

The first Ordinance for the regulation of fees in 
the Court of Chancery, was adopted in 1724, dur- 
ing the administration of Governor Burnet. These 
fees, particularly those allowed to the counsel and 

1 Book A. A. A. of Commissions, * Whitehead's East Jersey, 167. 
54. Note. 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 



115 



solicitors, would be deemed liberal even at the pre- 
sent day. At that time, they were thought to be 
very extravagant, and were made the subject of 
frequent complaints. A Committee of Council was 
therefore appointed in 1730, under the administra- 
tion of Governor Montgomery, for the purpose of 
revising and moderating the same, so as to make 
them more conformable " to the circumstances of 
the Province." They performed the task assigned 
to them with a most unsparing hand. Their object 
would seem to have been the same, with that avow- 
ed by Abraham Clarke at a later period, when he 
introduced the bill, known by the name of " Clarke's 
Practice Act." " If it succeeds," said he, " it will 
tear off the ruffles from the lawyers' wrists." * 

If the Court of Chancery was the delight of 
Burnet, it was evidently the aversion of Montgo- 
mery. In New York, he countenanced the cla- 
mors against it ; declined to sit as Chancellor, until 
enjoined by special orders from England ; and then 
obeyed the command most reluctantly, frankly con- 
fessing, that he thought himself wholly unqualified 
for the station. " He never," says Smith, " gave a 
single decree, nor more than three orders ; and 
these, both as to matter and form, were first settled 

1 Sedgwick's Life of Livingston, 434. Note. 



116 COURT OF CHANCERY. 

by the counsel concerned. 1 It may be presumed, 
therefore, that he regarded, with no little com- 
placency, the dissatisfaction which the Court was 
beginning to excite in New Jersey. As an evidence 
of the growing jealousy with which its proceedings 
were here watched, the same Committee who were 
appointed to cut down its fees, were also directed 
to inquire into the abuses which had crept into the 
practice of the Court, and to propose suitable re- 
medies. They appear to have made very thorough 
and searching inquiries, and some of the abuses 
which they brought to light, may perhaps be recog- 
nized as existing at a much later day, and not very 
remote from the present time. 

They complain, for instance, that in drawing 
bills, matters of conveyance and inducement are 
set forth too much at length, whereas, they ought 
to be set forth in the briefest manner possible, and 
the points in question alone fully set forth ; and 
the remedy which they propose is, that counsel, 
setting their hands to any such bill, should pay all 
the charges which the parties are subjected to, by 
reason of the superfluous matter. 

Another abuse which they point out is, that in 
the drawing of bills, they find it usual to amass a 

1 Smith's N. Y., 273. 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 117 

number of iniquities against the defendant as mere 
matter of form; and to turn the whole things 
charged into questions afterwards; "whereas" — 
it is pertinently remarked — " when a fact is once 
properly charged, there needs few, and often no 
questions to bring out the truth concerning it, other 
than the general one, to answer the things charg- 
ed ;" and the remedy they propose is, that solicit- 
ors in drawing their bills should keep to the truth 
of their case, and avoid inserting things purely as 
matters of form ; and that counsel, under the same 
penalty as before, should set their hands to no bill, 
" with any questions therein, which can bring no 
further answer than the charge does require." 1 

1 In the Life of Lord Ellesmere — abuse is not in any sort to be tolerat- 
Lord Chancellor in the reign of Queen ed — proceeding of a malicious pur- 
Elizabeth — we have a striking in- pose to increase the defendant's 
stance of the vigor with which he charge, and being fraught with much 
strove to correct the prolixity of Chan- impertinent matter not fit for this 
eery pleadings in his time. In the Court ; it is therefore ordered, that 
case of Mylwardv. Weldon, there be- the Warden of the Fleet shall take 
ing a complaint of the length of the the said Richard Mylward into his 
Replication, and the Lord Chancellor custody, and shall bring him into 
being satisfied that " whereas it ex- Westminster Hall on Saturday about 
tended to six score sheets, all the ten of the clock in the forenoon, and 
matter thereof which was pertinent then and there shall cut a hole in the 
might have been well contained in midst of the same engrossed Replica- 
sixteen," an order was made by him tion, which is delivered to him for 
in these words : — " It appearing to that purpose, and put the said Rich- 
his Lordship by the confession of ard's head through the same hole, and 
Richard Mylward, the plaintiff's son, so let the same Replication hang 
that he did devise, draw, and engross about his shoulders with the written 
the said Replication, and because his side outward, and then, the same so 
Lordship is of opinion that such an hanging, shall lead the same Rich- 



118 COURT OF CHANCERY. 

There were various other abuses exposed, tend- 
ing to delay the progress of causes, and enhance the 
expense of proceedings. One is reminded of that 
quaint old tract on " the abuses and remedies of 
Chancery," presented to the Lord Keeper, in the 
reign of James the First, by Mr. George Norburie, 
to be found in Mr. Hargrave's collection of tracts ; 
in which poor suitors are represented as coming 
into the Court of Chancery, " like a flock of sheep 
to a bush for shelter, and are there more wet than 
they were in the open field ; and yet the bush will 
not part without a fleece, and out of which they 
go, with the same note they came in, pitifully com- 
plaining. 19 And he asks, " Will your Lordship 
know the reason, and who are the causers thereof; 
I answer in a word, Counsellors. For well near 
with every one of them, nothing is more familiar, 
than so soon as the bill is exhibited, presently to 
ruminate upon something that may be moved . . . ; 
and if he chance to get a new order, then he thinks 
he has done a great exploit, and bound the poor 



ard, bareheaded and barefaced, round fine, and twenty nobles to the defend- 
about Westminster Hall whilst the ant for his costs in respect of the 
Courts are sitting, and shall show aforesaid abuse, which fine and costs 
him at the bar of every of the three are now adjudged and imposed upon 
Courts within the Hall, and then shall him by this Court for the abuse afore- 
take him back again to the Fleet, and said." — Lives of the Lord Chancel- 
keep him prisoner until he shall have lors. II. 172. Am. ed. 
paid ten pounds to her Majesty for a 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 



119 



client to him for ever. The next day he is over- 
thrown ; yet will he not so give it over ; but he will 
make more work for himself and his adverse plead- 
er, till his client has scarce a round shilling in his 
pocket." 

The Committee seem to have come to very 
much the same conclusion, and to have laid all the 
sins of the Court upon the heads of the lawyers. 
Their report, however, was approved of, and the 
suggestions which they made, were embodied in an 
Ordinance of the Governor and Council. How far 
these evil practices were corrected, we have no 
means of ascertaining ; but if checked for the time, 
it is very certain they sprung up afterwards, and 
produced a luxuriant growth, which it has required 
the pruning hand of the Legislature, from time to 
time, to lop off. 

By far the most important bill ever filed in the 
Provincial Court of Chancery, was the one known 
by the name of the Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery,' 
to which some reference has already been made. 
The' complainants in this suit, were John Earl of 
Stair, and thirty-eight other Proprietors of the 
Eastern Division of New Jersey ; and the defend- 
ants, were Benjamin Bond and others — to the num- 
ber of about four hundred and fifty — claiming under 
the Elizabethtown Associates, and distinguished by 



120 COURT OF CHANCERY. 

the name of the Clinker-Lot-Right-Men. The bill 
was filed in 1745, and is drawn out into the extra- 
vagant length of about fifteen hundred sheets. It is 
signed by James Alexander, the father of Lord 
Stirling, and Joseph Murray, a distinguished law- 
yer of New York. It was printed by James Parker 
in 1747, and, with the accompanying documents, 
makes a folio volume of one hundred and sixty 
pages. It is entitled—" A Bill in the Chancery of 
New Jersey, at the suit of John Earl of Stair, and 
others, Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New 
Jersey; against Benjamin Bond, and some other 
persons of Elizabethtown, distinguished by the 
name of the Clinker-Lot-Right-Men. With three 
large Maps done from copper-plates — To which is 
added the Publications of the Council of Proprie- 
tors of East New Jersey, and Mr. Nevill's speeches 
to the General Assembly, concerning the Riots 
committed in New Jersey, and the pretences of the 
"Rioters and their Seducers. These papers will 
give a better light into the History and Constitu- 
tion of New Jersey, than any thing hitherto pub- 
lished, the matters whereof have been chiefly col- 
lected from Records." 

The answer was not put in until 1751. It is 
almost as prolix as the bill itself. The Defendants, 
not to be behindhand with their adversaries, had 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 121 

the answer also published in 1752, and with a title 
quite as long as that prefixed to the bill. It runs 
thus : — " An Answer to a Bill in the Chancery of 
New Jersey, at the suit of John Earl of Stair, and 
others, commonly called Proprietors of the Eastern 
Division of New Jersey, against Benjamin Bond 
and others claiming under the original Proprietors 
and Associates of Elizabethtown. To which is add- 
ed, nothing either of the Publications of the Coun- 
cil of Proprietors of East New Jersey, or of the Pre- 
tences of the Rioters and their Seducers ; except 
so far as the Persons meant by Rioters, pretend 
title against the Parties to the above Answer ; but 
a great deal of the Controversy, though much less 
of the History and Constitution of New Jersey, 
than the said Bill. Audi alteram partum." 

The counsel who put their names to the an- 
swer, were William Livingston, afterwards Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, and William Smith, jun., 
who became Chief Justice of New York, and after 
the Revolution, Chief Justice of Canada. 

The parties to this suit seem to have been at 
issue upon all points. The Defendants in their 
answer, without formally excepting to the right of 
the Governor to act as Chancellor, nevertheless 
protest, that Brigadier Hunter was the first Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, that vever assumed to himself 



122 COURT OF CHANCERY, 

the power solely to hear and determine causes in 
Equity ; and that neither he, nor any of his suc- 
cessors, ever received any special order from the 
crown to erect such a Court. They repudiate the 
name of Clinker-Lot-Right-Men, by which they are 
called in the bill ; declare it to be nothing more 
than a " nick-name," given to them by their oppo- 
nents ; and that the only reason why the Com- 
plainants are so fond of using it, and why they have 
so often " garnished their bill with it," was to bring 
the Defendants into derision, and to cast " a slur 
and odium" upon them and their title. They even 
go so far as to deny, that Elizabethtown was ever 
named after the wife of Sir George Carteret, the 
first Proprietor of New Jersey, but insist, that it 
was named by those under whom they claim, " in 
memory of the renowned Queen Elizabeth." 

But it is not proposed to go into the merits of 
the controversy. The bill, notwithstanding its ex- 
treme prolixity, is certainly drawn up with much 
ability, and makes out a very strong case in favor 
of the complainants. That the original deed from 
the Indians, under which the Defendants claimed, 
did not confer any valid title, would seem to be 
quite clear ; and yet, there were various other mat- 
ters which entered into the case, and by which it 
was somewhat complicated. The conduct of Gov- 



COURT OF CHANCERY 123 

ernor Carteret himself, who purchased an interest 
in the Elizabethtown grant, thereby recognizing, as 
was said, its validity, was a strong point in the De- 
fendants' case. But notwithstanding the immense 
labor bestowed upon the preparation of this cause, 
it was never brought to a conclusion in the Court 
of Chancery. Before a final hearing could be had, 
the events which ushered in the Revolution, inter- 
rupted the progress of the suit, and it was never af- 
terwards revived. 

In 1768, the attention of the General Assembly 
was called to the subject of the Court of Chancery, 
by a message from Governor Franklin. He stated 
to them, that controversies frequently arose wherein 
the Courts of common law could not give relief, 
and which therefore became the proper objects of 
a Court of Chancery ; that as the disuse of such a 
Court would probably be attended with mischiefs 
to the good people which they represented, he had 
kept it open, though under very great disadvan- 
tages to himself; but that no salary was allowed 
for the necessary officers, and that the fees were 
not sufficient to make some of them even a moder- 
ate recompense for their trouble and attendance. 
He recommended the matter, therefore, to their 
serious consideration, and desired them to make 
such a provision for the necessary officers of the 



124 COURT OF CHANCERY. 

Court, as would induce persons of knowledge and 
probity to discharge those important trusts. The 
House requested the Governor to inform them par- 
ticularly, what officers of the Court of Chancery it 
was necessary that they should make provision for ; 
and he thereupon sent them a list of the officers, 
for which he thought salaries ought to be allowed. 
They were, a Master of the Rolls, and a Master in 
Chancery for one division of the Province ; two 
Masters in Chancery for the other division ; and a 
Sergeant at Arms in each division. For the Clerks, 
Registers, and Examiners, the fees allowed by law 
were deemed sufficient. 

The subject of salaries, however, was one upon 
which Governor Franklin always had the misfor- 
tune to differ from the Assembly ; and as he was now 
pressing upon them the necessity of making fur- 
ther provision for the support of the King's troops 
in the Province — a point upon which the House 
were beginning to be sensitive — they showed no 
disposition to comply with his recommendations as 
to the Court of Chancery. 

But in 1770, by virtue of the powers and autho- 
rities given to him by his commission, and with 
the advice and consent of the Council, Governor 
Franklin adopted an Ordinance in reference to the 
Court of Chancery ; by which, after reciting, that 



COURT OF CHANCERY. 125 

there always had been a Court of Chancery in the 
Province of New Jersey, and that the same re- 
quired regulation, it was ordained and declared, 
that his Excellency William Franklin be consti- 
tuted and appointed Chancellor and Judge of the 
High Court of Chancery of New Jersey, and that 
he be empowered to appoint and commission such 
Masters, Clerks, Examiners, Registers, and other 
necessary officers, as should be needful in holdino- 
the said Court and doing the business thereof; and 
also to make such rules, orders, and regulations, 
for carrying on the business of the said Court, as 
from time to time should seem necessary. 1 

This Ordinance remained in force, until the 
adoption of the Constitution of July the second, 
1776, which provided, that the Governor for the 
time being, or in his absence the Vice President of 
the Council, should be the Chancellor ; and on the 
seventh of October following, the Court of Chan- 
cery was confirmed and •established by the Legisla- 
ture, with the same powers as those exercised by it 
before the Declaration of Independence. The offi- 
ces of Governor and Chancellor continued to be 
united, until the adoption of our present Constitu- 
tion, when a separation was made. The conse- 

1 Griffith's Law Reg. IV. 1183. 



126 ROBERT L. HOOPER— THOMAS FARMAR. 

quence was, that every Governor, from the Revo- 
lution to 1844, was a lawyer; and if in one point 
of view this was objectionable, by confining the 
office to the members of a single profession, yet on 
the other hand, it gave to us, during the whole of 
that period, a succession of Governors, of whom 
New Jersey may well be proud — a Livingston, a 
Paterson, a Howell, a Bloomfield, an Ogden, a Pen- 
nington, a Williamson, and a Southard, (not to 
mention the living,) every one of whom shone as a 
star of the first magnitude. 

But to return to the history of the Supreme 
Court. Upon the death of William Trent, Robert 
Lettice Hooper was appointed by Governor Burnet 
Chief Justice, and took his seat upon the Bench at 
Burlington, on the thirtieth of March, 1725. At 
the time of his appointment, he was a member of 
the House of Assembly, and without being much 
distinguished in any way, seems to have enjoyed in 
a high degree the respect and confidence of the 
public. In 1728, after having been Chief Justice 
for about three years, Thomas Farmar was ap- 
pointed to succeed him. 

Farmar had removed from Staten Island to Am- 
boy, about the year 1711, and was soon afterwards 
appointed Second Judge of the Supreme Court, in 
place of Lewis Morris, who, although his name ap- 



THOMAS FARMAR. 



127 



pears among the Judges of our Supreme Court, 
never, I believe, took his seat upon the Bench, hav- 
ing soon after his appointment removed to New 
York, where he was made Chief Justice. 

Gordon, in his History of New Jersey, says, that 
Lewis Morris was at the same time Chief Justice 
of both colonies, and adduces the fact as evidence, 
that New Jersey was treated as a mere dependency 
of New York. 1 This, however, is but one of the 
many glaring inaccuracies of that work — a work, 
in which ignorance of facts is equalled only by un- 
skilfulness of narrative. In this instance, his facts 
and his inferences are alike unfounded. So jealous 
were the people of New Jersey of their more pow- 
erful neighbor, that, as we have seen in the case 
of Jamison, they were unwilling that their Chief 
Justice should ever reside in New York ; and they 
complained that James Alexander, the father of 
Lord Stirling, was a member of the Council here, 
although he was a large Proprietor of New Jersey, 
and quite as much interested in this colony as in 
New York. 

Farmar represented for many years the county 
of Middlesex in the Assembly, and was an active 
and influential member of that body. At that time, 

1 Gordon's N. J., 97. 



128 CHRISTOPHER BILLOP. 

there was nothing incompatible in a Judge of the 
Supreme Court having a seat in the House. He 
officiated as Chief Justice from March, 1728, until 
November Term, 1729, when Robert Lettice 
Hooper was again appointed. Farmar was for 
some years insane, and was frequently obliged to 
be kept in close confinement ; and this may have 
been the reason why he was now removed from the 
Bench. 

The eldest son of Thomas Farmar, married the 
daughter of Captain Christopher Billop, an officer 
of the British navy, who had succeeded in obtain- 
ing a patent for a large tract of land on Staten 
Island, containing between one and two thousand 
acres. Young Farmar, upon his wife's inheriting 
this estate, adopted her father's name, and, as 
Christopher Billop, became a very noted character 
during the revolutionary war. He commanded a 
corps of New York loyalists, and upon one occa- 
sion, was taken prisoner by the Whigs, and con- 
fined in the jail at Burlington. The late Elias 
Boudinot, then commissary of prisoners, was con- 
strained to treat him with great severity, in reta- 
liation for the cruel treatment of two Whig officers 
who had fallen into the hands of the royal troops. 
Irons were put on his hands and feet, he was chain- 
ed to the floor of a close room, and fed on bread 



ROBERT LETTICE HOOPER. 



129 



and water. His residence on Staten Island was 
well known as the old Billop House. It was here 
that Lord Howe met Benjamin Franklin, John 
Adams, and Edward Rutledge, a Committee of 
Congress, in the vain hope of adjusting the difficul- 
ties between the Colonies and the mother country. 
After the peace, Billop's estate was confiscated, 
and he went to the Province of New Brunswick, 
where he became a member of the House of As- 
sembly, and of the Council, and for many years 
bore a prominent part in the administration of its 
affairs. He died at St. John's, in 1827, at the age 
of ninety. 1 

Hooper, after his restoration to the Bench, con- 
tinued to act as Chief Justice until his death, which 
occurred in March, 1738. His remains were car- 
ried to the city of New York, where they were 
interred with every mark of respect. He had held 
the office of Chief Justice, with a short interval, for 
about fourteen years, and had so conducted him- 
self as to win universal approbation and esteem. 

Nothing could exceed the tranquillity, the con- 
tentment, and repose, which pervaded the Province 
during this period. It was the golden age of our 
Colonial history. The most rapid advancement was 

1 Sabine's Am. Loyalists, 160. 

9 



130 SLAVE INSURRECTION. 

making, in all the elements of prosperity and hap- 
piness. The voice of faction, and the discords of 
party, which had so long distracted the Assembly, 
and perplexed the Courts, were hushed. The ad- 
ministration of justice, flowing tranquilly, as it did, 
through its accustomed channels, was productive 
of no events of sufficient importance to claim our 
attention. 

Once only, was this scene of peace and security 
broken in upon. It was upon the occasion of an 
insurrection among the slaves, the only instance of 
the kind recorded in the annals of New Jersey ; 
and I refer to it, as another illustration of the mild 
and humane spirit, which has ever characterized 
the administration of our criminal justice. Slaves 
formed at this time nearly a tenth part of our whole 
population, being a larger proportion than at any 
other period of our history. Whether the con- 
spiracy was real or imaginary, no doubt was enter- 
tained as to its existence ; and yet, notwithstand- 
ing the rage and terror which such an event al- 
ways excites, but a single one of the supposed con- 
spirators was punished. This, says Oldmixon, ill- 
naturedly enough, was "probably because they 
could not well spare any more." But, as Grahame 
observes, " it is happy for slaves, when their mas- 
ters feel themselves unable to spare them, even to 



MILD TREATMENT OF SLAVES. 



131 



the cravings of fear and vengeance." And he re- 
fers to an insurrection which took place about the 
same time, in the British colony of Antigua, and 
which, he observes, " was punished with a barba- 
rity more characteristic of slave owners." 1 Three 
of the ringleaders were broken on the wheel ; se- 
venty-nine were burned alive ; and nine were sus- 
pended in chains, and starved to death. And it 
may be added, that a few years afterwards, a " ne- 
gro plot," as it was called, was thought to have 
been discovered in the city of New York ; and al- 
though there is every reason to believe that the 
whole affair was a delusion, yet fourteen unfortu- 
nate wretches were burned at the stake, eighteen 
hanged, and seventy-one transported ; besides 
which, a poor Catholic priest, of blameless life 
and of great learning, upon mere suspicion of be- 
ing an accomplice, was executed, to glut the ven- 
geance of an enraged and infatuated multitude. 2 

But the mild treatment of slaves in New Jersey, 
was always the subject of remark. 3 Never, in fact, 
did slavery exist in a more mitigated form. Among 
the Quakers, and more especially among the Dutch 
farmers, slaves were generally treated as members 
of the family ; living under the same roof, partak- 

• Grahame's Col. Hist., II. 105. 3 Grahame's Col. Hist., I. 490. 

2 Smith's N. Y., 434. 



132 DANIEL COXE. 

ing of the same fare, and even sitting down at the 
same table with their masters. 

In 1733, during the administration of Governor 
Crosby, it was provided by an act of Assembly, 
that no person should be permitted to practise as 
an attorney at law, but such as had served an ap- 
prenticeship of at least seven years with some able 
attorney licensed to practise, or had pursued the 
study of the law for at least four years after com- 
ing of full age. Before this, no previous term of 
study had been required as a qualification for ad- 
mission to the bar ; and the consequence was, that 
many persons of mean parts and slender attain- 
ments had found their way into the profession. 
Under the wise and wholesome provisions of this 
act, however, we shall soon find the Courts of 
New Jersey adorned by men, who were lawyers 
indeed. 

In 1734, and while Hooper was Chief Justice, 
Daniel Coxe was appointed an Associate Justice of 
the Supreme Court. He was the son of Dr. Daniel 
Coxe of London, the great Proprietor of West 
Jersey, and Governor of that Province for some 
years. 1 We have seen that he was a member of 

1 Dr. Daniel Coxe, according to ed Edward Hunloke his deputy. In 

Smith, owned twenty-two shares of 1691, he conveyed the Government 

Propriety. He was Governor of West of West Jersey and territories to a 

Jersey from 1687 to 1690, and appoint- company of Proprietaries, called the 



DANIEL COXE. I33 

Lord Cornbury's Council, and Speaker of the 
House of Assembly during the administration of 
Governor Hunter. He was a man of an enterprising 
character, and of great activity of mind, and his 
name is entitled to a place in our Colonial history, 
which it has not hitherto received. 

In 1630, a patent had been obtained by Sir 
Robert Heath, Attorney General to Charles the 
First, of that extensive region of country then call- 
ed Carolina. In 1663, however, this patent was 
declared to be void, the purposes for which it was 
given never having been carried out ; and a new 
grant of it was made by Charles the Second to 
some of his rapacious courtiers. But towards the 
close of the seventeenth century, Dr. Coxe — who 
speculated largely in North American proprietary 
rights — contrived among other acquisitions, to pro- 
cure an assignment of this old patent, which he 
contended was a valid and subsisting one. 1 In 
1699, he addressed a memorial to King William, 
reciting the original patent, and setting forth his 
pretensions to the Province embraced within it. 2 
This memorial was referred to the Attorney Gene- 



West Jersey Society, for the sum of ' Grahame's Col. Hist., I. 343. 
nine thousand pounds sterling. — Note. 

Smith's N. J., 190, 207. 2 For an abstract of this memorial 

see Coxe's Carolana, p. 114. 



134 DANIEL COXE. 

ral, who, after perusing the letters patent and con- 
veyances produced by Dr. Coxe, reported in favor 
of the validity of his title. 

After his death, his son, Daniel Coxe, of whom 
we are now speaking, revived his father's claim, 
and made various unsuccessful efforts to colonize 
the country embraced in it, and which he called Ca- 
rolana, the name given to it in the original patent. 
In the prosecution of this purpose he wrote a trea- 
tise, which was published in 1722, 1 and which de- 
serves more than a passing notice. It was entitled, 
" A description of the English Province of Caro- 
lana, by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the 
French La Louisiane." The question as to his 
title has long since lost its interest; and his de- 
scription of the Province only shows how little was 
then known of the geography of our country f but 



1 Grahame says it was published carriage." The River Mississippi, 

in the year 1741. But this was a re- through one of its branches, is shown 

publication made after the death of to be navigable to its heads or springs, 

Daniel Coxe. It was originally pub- which proceed from a ridge of hills, 

lished in 1722, many years before his somewhat north of New Mexico, 

death. passable by horse, foot, or wagon, in 

9 The fifth chapter of the work un- less than half a day ; and on the other 

folds " a new and curious discovery," side of this ridge, are said to be navi- 

of an easy communication betwixt gable rivers, which run into a great 

the River Mississippi and the South lake, that empties itself by another 

Sea, which separates America from navigable river into the Sou^th Sea. 

China, by means of several large ri- This ridge of hills, passable by horse, 

vers and lakes. This easy commu- foot, or wagon, in less than half a 

nication was by water, with the ex- day, was of course the Rocky Moun- 

ception of "about half a day's land tains. — Coxe's Carolana,p. 62. 



DANIEL COXE'S PLAN OF UNION. 135 

his preface to the work contains suggestions which, 
as they connect themselves with the formation of 
our American Union, cannot even now be deemed 
unimportant. 

He proposed, for the more effectual defence of 
the British settlements against the hostile incur- 
sions of the French and Indians, that all the North 
American Colonies should be united under a legal, 
regular, and firm establishment; over which, a 
Lieutenant, or Supreme Governor, should be ap- 
pointed to preside, and to whom the Governors of 
each Colony were to be subordinate. He further 
proposed, that two deputies should be annually 
elected by the Council and Assembly of each Pro- 
vince, who were to form a Great Council, or Ge- 
neral Convention of the Estates of the Colonies ; 
they were to be convened by the Governor Gene- 
ral, to consult and advise for the general good of 
all the Colonies, and to settle and appoint the re- 
spective quotas or proportions of men and money 
to be raised by each, for their mutual defence and 
safety, as well as for offence and invasion of their 
enemies in case of necessity ; the Governor Gene- 
ral to have a negative upon the acts and proceed- 
ings of the Great Council, but not to enact any 
thing without their consent. It was further pro- 
vided, that the quota or proportion allotted to each 



]3G DANIEL COXE'S PLAN OF UNION. 

Colony, might nevertheless be levied and raised by 
its own Assembly, in such manner as they should 
judge most easy and convenient, and the circum- 
stances of their affairs would permit. 1 

" In this plan," says Grahame, " which is de- 
veloped at considerable length, and supported with 
great force of argument, we behold the germ of 
that more celebrated, though less original project, 
which was again ineffectually recommended by an 
American statesman in the year 1754 ; and which, 
not many years after, was actually embraced by 
his countrymen, and rendered instrumental to the 
achievement of their independence." 2 It was in 
fact the very plan, which was recommended by Dr. 
Franklin to the Convention, which assembled at 
Albany, in 1754, for the purpose of forming a league 
with the Six Nations, and concerting measures for 
united operations against the encroachments of 



1 " Let us consider," he says, " the interest, as they are under one gra- 
fall of our ancestors, and grow wise cious sovereign, and with united 
by their misfortunes. If the ancient forces were ready and willing to act 
Britains had been united amongst in concert, and assist each other, 
themselves, the Romans, in all pro- they would be better enabled to pro- 
bability, had never become their mas- vide for and defend themselves against 
ters : for as Caesar observed of them, any troublesome ambitious neighbor 
dum singuli pugnabant, universi vin- or bold invader. For Union and Con- 
cebantur, whilst they fought in sepa- cord increase and establish strength 
rate bodies, the whole island was and power, whilst Division and Dis- 
subdued. So, if the English Colo- cord have the contrary effect." — 
nies in America were consolidated as Coxe's Carolana, Preface. 
one body, and joined in one common 2 Grahame's Col. His , II. 199. 



DANIEL COXE. 



137 



the French. This plan of Dr. Franklin's has been 
much talked of, as " the Albany Plan of Union," 
figures largely in all our histories, and is thought 
to have been one of those grand and original con- 
ceptions for which he was so famous. And yet, it 
was little more than a transcript of the design 
sketched by Daniel Coxe many years before, and 
which would seem to have originated with him. 
To him, therefore, a citizen of New Jersey, and 
one of the Judges of our Supreme Court, belongs 
the credit of it, and the truth of history requires 
that from him it should no longer be withheld. 
The name of Franklin is encircled with such a glo- 
rious plumage of its own, that it can well afford to 
have this single borrowed feather plucked from it. 

Daniel Coxe remained upon the Bench of the 
Supreme Court until his death, which took place 
at Trenton in the spring of 1739. His early career 
in New Jersey was clouded, by his connexion with 
Lord Cornbury, and his differences with Governor 
Hunter ; but he lived to enjoy the confidence and 
respect of the community ; and his judicial duties 
appear to have been discharged with 'ability and 
integrity. 

The next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
was Robert Hunter Morris. His commission bears 
date on the seventeenth of March, 1738, and a few 



138 LEWIS MORRIS. 

days afterwards he took his seat upon the Bench. 
He was the son of Lewis Morris, of whom we have 
had occasion more than once to speak, a man who 
for more than half a century filled a most conspi- 
cuous place in the annals both of New Jersey and 
New York. 

Having the misfortune when an infant to lose 
both his parents, Lewis Morris was adopted by an 
uncle, who took care of him until he came to man's 
estate. His early years were wild and erratic. In 
one of his youthful freaks, he strolled away to Vir- 
ginia, and from there to the Island of Jamaica, 
"where, to support himself, he set up for a scriv- 
ener." After some years spent in this " vagabond 
life," he returned to his uncle, by whom he was 
kindly received, and who, dying soon after, left him 
heir to his fortune. 1 He began his public career in 
New Jersey, where he became a Judge of the 
Court of Common Right under the Proprietary 
Government, and after the Surrender, a member of 
the Council, and a popular leader of the Assem- 
bly. Upon receiving the appointment of Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, he re- 
moved to that Province, and for many years took 
a leading part in its affairs ; and now, after a long 

1 Smith's N. Y., 202. 



LEWIS MORRIS. 139 



absence, he returned to New Jersey, not to spend 
in quietness and peace the remnant of a life which 
was drawing to a close, but to enter upon a new 
and troubled scene of action. He brought with 
him a commission as Governor of New Jersey 
alone, this Province being now, for the first time 
since the Surrender, allowed to have a separate 
Governor from New York. 

But it is impossible for me, within the limits 
which I have prescribed to myself, to do justice to 
the character of either the Governor or the Chief 
Justice. Ample materials exist for a life of both fa- 
ther and son, and it is to be hoped that they will 
ere long be collected, and embodied in some suita- 
ble form. Interesting and valuable would their 
biographies be. Their history would in fact be the 
history of New Jersey for the first century of its 
existence. Lewis Morris, in his youth, must have 
been the companion of the first settlers of the 
Colony, and Robert Hunter Morris, in his old age, 
of the chief actors in the Revolution. Lewis Mor- 
ris was one of the earliest Judges of the Court of 
Common Right, and Robert Hunter Morris one of 
the latest Chief Justices of the Supreme Colonial 
Court. Their career, too, was so chequered, and 
their features so strongly marked, that they present 
a most tempting theme for discussion. But it is 



140 • LEWIS MORRIS. 

one in which I cannot now indulge. I can only 
glance at a few of the more striking incidents of 
their life, and the more prominent traits of their 
character. 

Lewis Morris, notwithstanding his eccentrici- 
ties, was a man of strong natural parts, which 
were much improved by commerce with the world, 
and the society of men of sense and knowledge, of 
which he was passionately fond. But he was at 
the same time a man of strong passions, which 
were not always under his control, and of an ar- 
dent, restless, and aspiring disposition. In his 
youth he was a flaming patriot, and stood up man- 
fully for the rights of the people ; but when in 
power himself, no one was a fiercer stickler for 
prerogative. He was indolent in the management 
of his private affairs, but always busy about public 
matters. He had considerable knowledge of the 
law, but was much more deeply versed in the arts 
of intrigue. In short, he was neither a profound 
lawyer, nor an enlightend statesman, but a mere 
politician, and his vices were the vices which be- 
long to that class of men. But he was not defi- 
cient in generous or manly qualities, nor incapable 
of appreciating them in others. An inordinate love 
of money was not one of his faults. The fortune 
which he left behind him, he had inherited from his 



LEWIS MORRIS. 



141 



uncle. He was a kind husband, and an affection- 
ate parent. 1 

He was nearly seventy years old, when he was 
appointed Governor of New Jersey ; but age had 
not impaired the vigor of his faculties, nor cooled 
the ardor of his passions, nor extinguished his fond- 
ness for disputation. He was received by the peo- 
ple and the Assembly with open arms. They re- 
membered, with gratitude, the services which in 
times past he had rendered to the Colony, and the 
boldness and eloquence with which he had vindi- 
cated their rights, against the tyrannical encroach- 
ments of Cornbury. The first messages which 
passed between him and the House, breathed no- 
thing but mutual congratulation and confidence. 
They expressed their deep sensibility of their sove- 
reign's paternal care over them, in giving them a 
Governor so exactly adapted to their wants and 
circumstances ; a person so distinguished for his 
profound knowledge of the law, and so eminent for 
his skill in the affairs of government; one, in 
short, who from his learning and ability, and from 
his acquaintance with the nature and Constitution 
of the Province, was every way qualified to render 
them a happy and flourishing people. But the 

1 Smith's N. J., p. 428. 



142 LEWIS MORRIS. 

scene soon changed. In his very next message to 
the House, he read them a long political lecture, in 
which he assumed an arrogant and overbearing 
tone, and concluded with a solemn, not to say irre- 
verent warning, that they should now in this their 
clay, follow the things that made for their peace, before 
they were hid from their eyes. This the Assembly 
did not much relish ; and evincing no disposition 
to be dragooned into submission, they were soon 
after dissolved. A new Assembly fared no better, 
and from that time until his death, there was one 
uninterrupted scene of contention and strife. The 
Governor prided himself upon his great skill and 
experience in political matters ; he could not brook 
the slightest opposition to his views, even in the 
smallest particular ; and he was passionately fond 
of argumentation. With such a temper of mind, 
and constantly brought into contact with an As- 
sembly, the members of which were quite as un- 
yielding in their opinions as he was, and who were 
besides always ready to run a tilt with a royal 
Governor, it was not to be wondered at, that a 
continual series of explosions should take place. 

There is some reason, however, for believing, 
that in his personal intercourse with the members 
of the Assembly, there was much to soften and re- 
lieve the harshness and severity of their public pro- 



LEWIS MORRIS. 



143 



ceedings. A little incident related by Smith, fur- 
nishes some evidence of this. During one of the 
long and tedious sessions, when business had been 
for some time at a stand, the Governor, meeting 
one day in the street with Joseph Cooper, a repre- 
sentative from the county of Gloucester, said to 
him in a pleasant way, " Cooper, I wish you would 
go home and send your wife in your place." Cooper 
replied, that he would willingly do so upon one 
condition, and that was, that the Governor would 
also resign in favor of his wife. Nor was this a 
pointless jest. For the Governor's lady — whom he 
had married in early life, and with whom he had 
lived most happily for many years — was really a 
most sensible and accomplished woman, and there 
is little doubt, that if she could have been permit- 
ted to hold the reins of government in her own 
hands, she would have managed the troublesome 
Assemblies much better than her husband did. 

Governor Morris died on the twenty-first of 
May, 1746, at his place, called Kingsbury, near 
Trenton. He had twelve children, the two eldest of 
which were Lewis and Robert Hunter. Lewis was 
the father of Lewis Morris, one of the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence, and of the still 
more celebrated Gouverneur Morris, whose life has 
been written by Mr. Sparks. 



144 ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS. 

Robert Hunter Morris held the office of Chief 
Justice of New Jersey for six-and-twenty years, 
although, as we shall see, he did not confine him- 
self very closely to the Bench. Of all the Chief 
Justices of our Supreme Court, prior to the Revo- 
lution, he was by far the most accomplished. Along 
with much of his father's genius, he inherited some 
of his peculiarities, the most prominent of which 
was his love of disputation, a propensity not likely 
to be checked by the profession which he em- 
braced. He was brought up under the care of an 
excellent mother, and enjoyed all the advantages of 
a liberal education. He had strong natural pow- 
ers, great quickness of apprehension, and a most 
retentive memory. Although born to the posses- 
sion of fortune, yet this did not — as it too often 
does — repress the energies of his mind, or abate 
his thirst for knowledge. In the gifts of person, na- 
ture had been as bountiful to him, as in those of in- 
tellect and fortune. He was comely in his appear- 
ance, graceful in his manners, and of a most impos- 
ing presence. He had a smooth flow of words, 
and was distinguished, beyond most men of his 
time, by his powers of conversation. 

With these advantages natural and acquired, it 
is not to be wondered at, that he should have risen 
rapidly to distinction. He soon became a member 



ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS. I45 

of Council, and at an early age, was appointed 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It is in this 
capacity, that we are chiefly to consider him ; and 
while there are no records of his judicial opinions, 
yet he left behind him the reputation of having been 
a learned and upright Judge. " He came young," 
says Smith, " into the office of Chief Justice, stuck 
to punctuality in the forms of the Courts, reduced 
the pleadings to precision and method, and pos- 
sessed the great qualities of his office, knowledge 
and integrity, in more perfection than had often 
been known in the colonies." 

Had no other office engrossed his attention — 
whatever might have been said of his private irre- 
gularities — his public character had been without a 
shade. But it is not surprising, that the reputation 
of a country lawyer, and a provincial judge, should 
not have been sufficient to fill the measure of his 
ambition. He soon began to look abroad for dis- 
tinction. In 1749, he visited England. A plan 
was believed to be in contemplation, for the pur- 
pose of placing New Jersey and New York again 
under the same Governor. Perhaps it was thought, 
that the experiment of having a separate Governor 
for New Jersey had not worked well ; and that the 
more the people of New Jersey saw of their Gov- 
ernors, the less they were apt to like them. It was 
10 



146 ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS. 

to protest against any such design, and to prevent the 
consummation of it, that the Chief Justice — at the 
request of the Council, of which he was a member 
— went to England. This at least, was the osten- 
sible object of his visit. Doubtless, he had other 
ends in view, of a more private and personal na- 
ture. He remained abroad for several years. He 
was treated in England with much respect and 
consideration. With his talents and accomplish- 
ments, the graces of his manner, and his powers of 
conversation, he was fitted to shine in any society. 
But it was not pleasure alone that he was in 
pursuit of. He was ambitious of political distinc- 
tion, and courted office. It was proposed to make 
him Lieutenant Governor of New York; and 
among the papers of the Society, there is the 
copy of a letter from him to Lord Lincoln, in 
which he urges, that the appointment should be 
hastened, if it was intended to confer it upon him. 
For some reason or other, however, this appoint- 
ment was not made. But a higher honor awaited 
him. He was a friend of John' and Thomas Penn, 
the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and saw much 
of them while in England. Hamilton, the Gov- 
ernor of that Province — worn out by the incessant 
disputes with the Assembly, to which his adher- 
ence to proprietary instructions subjected him — 



ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS. 



147 



declared, that he would serve no longer, and in- 
sisted that a successor should be at once appoint- 
ed. The office was thereupon tendered to Mr. 
Morris, and he undertook the perilous task of at- 
tempting to wield that " fierce democraty." 

In 1754, after an absence of five years, he return- 
ed, bearing the commission of Governor of Penn- 
sylvania. Soon after his arrival, he met in New 
York with Benjamin Franklin, a member of the As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania, then on his way to Boston. 
The interview which took place between them was 
so characteristic, that I will give it in the words of 
Franklin himself. 

After giving an account of his meeting in New 
York with Mr. Morris, who had just arrived from 
England with a commission to supersede Mr. Ham- 
ilton, he says : — " Mr. Morris asked me if I thought 
he must expect as uncomfortable an administration. 
I said no ; you may, on the contrary, have a very 
comfortable one, if you will only take care not to 
enter into any dispute with the Assembly." " My 
dear friend," said he, pleasantly, " how can you 
advise my avoiding disputes ? you know I love dis- 
puting ; it is one of my greatest pleasures ; how- 
ever, to show the regard I have for your counsel, 
I promise you I will, if possible, avoid them." And 
Franklin adds : — " He had some reason for loving 



148 ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS. 

to dispute, being eloquent, an acute sophister, and 
therefore generally successful in argumentative 
conversation. He had been brought up to it from 
a boy, his father, as I have heard, accustoming his 
children to dispute with one another for his diver- 
sion, while sitting at table after dinner ; but I think 
the practice was not wise ; for, in the course of 
my observation, those disputing, contradicting, and 
confuting people are generally unfortunate in their 
affairs. They get victory sometimes, but they 
never get good-will, which would be of more use to 
them. We parted, he going to Philadelphia, and I 
to Boston. In returning, I met at New York with 
the votes of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, by 
which it appeared that, notwithstanding his pro- 
mise to me, he and the House were already in high 
contention ; and it was a continual battle between 
them as long as he retained the Government. I 
had my share of it ; for as soon as I got back to 
my seat in the Assembly, I was put on every com- 
mittee for answering his speeches and messages, 
and by the committees always desired to make the 
draughts. Our answers, as well as his messages, 
were often tart, and sometimes indecently abusive ; 
and as he knew I wrote for the Assembly, one 
might have imagined that, when we met, we could 
hardly avoid cutting throats. But he was so good- 



I ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS. 149 

natured a man, that no personal difference between 
him and me was occasioned by the contest, and we 
often dined together." 

Here was in fact repeated, upon a new theatre, 
and with some additional parts, the very same 
scenes, which, not many years before, had been 
enacted by his father and the Assembly of New 
Jersey. Well had he learned the lessons which 
his father had given him in the art of disputation. 
In one respect, however, he was more unfortunate 
than his father ; for in this war of words, he was 
destined to encounter in the person of Franklin, a 
foeman, whose blade was as keen as his own, and 
who was quite as much a master of the art of 
fence. 

Upon his receiving the appointment of Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania, he tendered his resignation 
as Chief Justice, in a letter addressed to the Lords 
of Trade, a draft of which, bearing date on the 
twenty-ninth of March, 1754, is among the Ruther- 
furd Collection of Papers. I am indebted to Mr. 
Whitehead for some interesting extracts from this 
letter, containing a variety of suggestions touching 
appointments to office in New Jersey. He dwells 
upon the importance of filling the office of Attorney 
General with a man of character and abilities — 
one, " whose knowledge and standing in the law, 



150 ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS. 

may render him respected by the Courts, and en- 
able him to act up to the duties of his office." He 
recommends for that station David Ogden, as a 
man of character and fortune, of more than twenty 
years' standing at the Bar, among the first in the 
profession, and firmly attached to the Government. 
He names as his successor in the office of Chief 
Justice, Richard Saltar ; " a man," he says, " of 
understanding and fortune, a firm friend to the 
Government, and will act in that station with ho- 
nor to himself, and justice to the public." He did 
not think Samuel Nevill would do; "his circum- 
stances," he observes, " are so low, and he is, from 
that reason, unfit to be trusted in the principal seat 
of justice." It is very evident, that Mr. Morris 
esteemed the possession of wealth an indispensable 
requisite for high office. 

However, the resignation of the Chief Justice 
was not accepted, and he held the office the whole 
time he was Governor of Pennsylvania. But the 
Bench of the Supreme Court was, in the mean- 
while, ably filled, by Nevill and Saltar, the associate 
Justices. 

In 1756, Mr. Morris relinquished his situation 
as Governor of Pennsylvania, and resumed his du- 
ties as Chief Justice. But the next year, 1757, we 
find him making another visit to England, and dur- 



WILLIAM AYNSLEY. 151 

ing his absence, William Aynsley was appointed 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. As Mr. Mor- 
ris held his commission during good behavior, it 
is not known upon what ground a vacancy was 
thought to exist. The appointment of Aynsley 
may perhaps be accounted for, by the peculiar cir- 
cumstances attending the Government of the Pro- 
vince at that time. Upon the death of Governor 
Belcher — which took place on the thirty-first of 
August, 1757 — the administration, of right, de- 
volved upon John Reading, the first named of the 
Councillors. His age and infirmities, however, 
were such, that he at first refused to act, and it 
was with the utmost reluctance that he was at last 
prevailed upon to assume the duties. For more 
than a month, the Government was administered 
by the whole Council. It was not until the thir- 
teenth of June, 1758, that Governor Bernard ar- 
rived. It was during this interregnum, if it may be 
so called, that Aynsley was appointed. He took 
his seat upon the Bench in March, 1758, and acted 
as Chief Justice during that and the following term. 
But he did not long survive his appointment: he 
died in the latter part of 1758, or early in 1759. 

Shortly after the death of Aynsley, it was an- 
nounced, that one Nathaniel Jones had been ap- 
pointed Chief Justice of New Jersey ; that he had 



152 NATHANIEL JONES. 

kissed the hands of his sovereign George the Third, 
and was about to sail for America to enter upon the 
duties of his office. Who this gentleman was, I 
have not been able to ascertain ; but, in all proba- 
bility, he was some briefless barrister of London, 
who had contrived in some way to make himself 
useful to the Government, and who was to be re- 
warded by the Chief-Justiceship of New Jersey. 
He arrived at New York, on the twelfth of Novem- 
ber, 1759, and at once proceeded to Amboy, where 
he received his commission from Governor Ber- 
nard. Being thus invested with his new dignity, 
he made a visit to Elizabethtown, where he was 
received with much ceremony. A public enter- 
tainment was given to him, and the Mayor and 
civil authorities presented an address, congratulat- 
ing him upon his safe arrival in the Colony. To 
this he returned a flattering response, promising 
himself much happiness from a residence among so 
"humane and religious a people," and pledging 
himself to a faithful performance of the duties of 
his office. 

At the next term of the Supreme Court, which 
was held in March, 1760, he appeared, produced 
his commission, and prayed that the oath of office 
might be administered to him. But here an unex- 
pected difficulty arose. The seat of the Chief Jus- 



NATHANIEL JONES. 153 

tice was already occupied. Robert Hunter Morris 
was again upon the Bench, claiming to be still the 
Chief Justice of New Jersey. Judge Nevill was by 
his side. It was altogether an awkward business, 
a very embarrassing affair. On the one hand, Mr. 
Jones had his commission read, by which he was 
appointed Chief Justice in the room of William 
Aynsley deceased. He also referred to a number 
of entries in the minutes of the Court, from which 
it appeared, that at the Term of March, 1758, the 
commission of Aynsley as Chief Justice had been 
openly read, and that he had actually sat upon the 
Bench during that and the following Term. This 
was certainly a very strong case for Mr. Jones. 
But on the other hand, Mr. Morris produced his 
commission, bearing date on the seventeenth day of 
March, 1738, appointing him to the office of Chief 
Justice, in place of Robert Lettice Hooper, to hold 
and enjoy the same during good behavior. 

In this dilemma, it became necessary for the 
Court to decide. Mr. Morris of course took no 
part in the decision, and the opinion of the Court 
was pronounced by Mr. Justice Nevill. It was to 
this effect; that, inasmuch as the commission of 
Mr. Morris conferred upon him a freehold in the 
office of Chief Justice of the Province of New Jer- 
sey, and nothing had been shown to divest him 



154 NATHANIEL JONES— ROBERT H. MORRIS. 

thereof, the Court could not administer the oath of 
office to Mr. Jones, or admit him to enter upon the 
execution of the duties of Chief Justice ; but would 
leave his right, if he had any, to be determined by 
a due course of law. Mr. Morris at the same time 
stated, from the Bench, that David Ogden and 
Charles Read would appear for him, and defend 
any suit that might be brought against him, touch- 
ing his right to the office. 1 Thus ended for the 
time this notable controversy; nor does it appear 
ever to have been revived. Mr. Jones quietly put 
his commission in his pocket, and returned whence 
he came, not finding his hopes of "happiness" 
likely to be realized in this New World, and proba- 
bly concluding, that the people of New Jersey were 
not quite so " humane and religious," as he had 
taken them to be. 

Mr. Morris continued to occupy, without inter- 
ruption, the seat of Chief Justice until his death. 
He was too important a man in the Colony, and 
too good a friend to the Government, to be discard- 
ed. The appointment of Jones had been in all 
probability made, under some misapprehension, or 
from a belief that Mr. Morris had no wish to return 
to the Bench. 

1 Minutes of Supreme Court. 



ROBERT H. MORRIS— SAMUEL NEVILL. 155 

But we must hasten to the close of the Chief 
Justice's career. It was a sudden and a melan- 
choly one. On the morning of the twenty-seventh 
of January, 1764, he left Morrisiana, in fine health 
and spirits, on a visit to Shrewsbury, where he had 
a cousin residing, the wife of the clergyman of the 
parish. In the evening, there was a dance in the 
village, and all the respectable families of the 
neighborhood were assembled. The Chief Justice 
made one of the gay throng, and entered heartily, 
as was his wont, into the festivities of the occa- 
sion. He led out the parson's wife, opened the 
ball, danced down six couple, and then— without a 
word, or a groan, or a sigh— fell dead upon the 

floor. 

Such is the sad story of his end, given in a let- 
ter from William Smith, the Provincial historian of 
New York, to his friend Horatio Gates, which is 
preserved in the library of the New York Histori- 
cal Society. And he adds, " Unhappy Jersey has 
lost her best ornament." 

Samuel Nevill, was second Judge of the Su- 
preme Court, while Morris was the Chief Justice. 
He was a son of John Nevill, of Stafford in Eng- 
land ; had received a liberal education ; and previ- 
ous to his coming to America, had been editor of 
the London Morning Post. His sister was the 



156 SAMUEL NEVILL. 

second wife of Peter Sonmans — of whom we have 
already spoken — and who dying in March, 1734, 
left the whole of his estate — including his large 
proprietary interests in New Jersey — to his widow. 
She died in the month of December, of the follow- 
ing year, intestate, and Samuel Nevill, being her 
eldest brother, inherited the property. He at once 
embarked for New Jersey, to look after the estate, 
to which he had thus fallen heir ; and arriving here 
in May, 1736, took up his residence at Amboy. 
He soon rose to eminence, and became a man of 
much influence in the Colony. He was for many 
years a member of the Assembly, and during the 
greater part of the time, Speaker of the House. 
He was the strenuous supporter of the rights of 
the Proprietors of East Jersey, in their difficulties 
with the Elizabethtown and Newark rioters, and 
some of the speeches which he delivered upon the 
occasion in the Assembly, were published in con- 
nexion with the Bill in Chancery, and have thus 
been preserved. He was also the principal cham- 
pion of the Assembly, in their long contests with 
Governor Morris, and penned some of those caus- 
tic addresses in reply to the speeches of his Ex- 
cellency. This may perhaps account for the dis- 
paraging terms in which he is spoken of by Robert 
Hunter Morris, in his letter to the Lords of Trade, 



SAMUEL NEVILL. 157 

before referred to. In 1748, he was appointed a 
Judge of the Supreme Court, and for a period of 
sixteen years, continued to discharge the duties of 
that office with great fidelity. While upon the 
Bench, he published, under the direction of the 
General Assembly, an edition of the laws of the 
Province, in two volumes ; containing all the acts 
of Assembly from the Surrender, in 1702, to the 
first of George the First, 1761. The first vol- 
ume was published in 1752, and the second in 
1761. 

Judge Nevill was not only a man of ability, but 
of considerable literary pretensions. In January, 
1758, appeared the first number of " The New 
American Magazine." It was printed by James 
Parker, published at Woodbridge, in the county of 
Middlesex, and edited by the Hon. Samuel Nevill, 
under the coofhomen of Sylvanus Americanus. It 
was the first periodical of any description that was 
published in New Jersey, and the second magazine 
of the kind on the continent. It continued to make 
its appearance regularly until March, 1760, when it 
was discontinued for want of patronage. Altoge- 
ther it was a very creditable publication. 1 

Upon the death of Mr. Morris, Judge Nevill 

1 Barber and Howe's N. J. Hist. Col., 44. 



158 CHARLES READ. 

would probably have been appointed Chief Justice, 
had not his advanced age, and growing infirmities, 
in a great measure disqualified him. He died, in 
fact, but a few months after the Chief Justice, in 
the sixty-seventh year of his age, leaving behind 
him a name, unsullied by the slightest stain, and 
which deserves to be held in grateful remembrance. 
Charles Read was appointed to succeed Robert 
Hunter Morris as Chief Justice. His commission 
is dated on the twentieth of February, 1764, and at 
the March Term following, he took his seat upon 
the Bench. William Smyth, in his letter to Hora- 
tio Gates, speaks of this appointment as an objec- 
tionable one, and after commenting upon it at some 
length, exclaims ; " Franklin after Boone — after 
Morris, Read ! Patience, kind heavens !" On the 
other hand, Lord Stirling addressed a letter to 
Governor Franklin, shortly after the* death of Mr. 
Morris, in which he recommends Charles Read as 
a very suitable person to fill the office of Chief Jus- 
tice. 1 He officiated as Chief Justice, however, but 
a few months. Whether the appointment gave 
dissatisfaction, or was designed only as a tempo- 
rary one, the fact is, he was soon displaced, and 
consented again to take the place of second Judge, 

1 Duer's Life of Lord Stirling, 80. 



FREDERICK SMYTH. 159 

which he had held for some time before Mr. Mor- 
ris's death. 

The last Chief Justice of the Colony of New 
Jersey was Frederick Smyth. He was appointed 
on the seventeenth of October, 1764, and continued 
in office until the adoption of the Constitution of 
1776. I need not say, that this was a most event- 
ful period in the history of the Colonies. The 
Stamp Act was passed soon after his elevation to 
the Bench, and the Declaration of Independence 
was adopted a few days after his retirement 
from it. 

New Jersey shared with her sister Colonies, in 
the indignation and alarm which was occasioned 
by the passage of the Stamp Act, and nowhere did 
it encounter a more vigorous, though peaceful re- 
sistance. The lawyers of New Jersey were the 
first to adopt measures for a systematic opposition 
to the use of stamps. At the September Term of 
the Supreme Court, 1765, a meeting of the Bar 
was held at Amboy, for the purpose of considering 
what steps it would be proper to pursue upon the 
arrival of the stamps, which were then shortly ex- 
pected. There was a full and general attendance, 
and after a free interchange of sentiment, it was 
unanimously resolved, that they would not consent 
to make use of the stamps, under any circum- 



160 THE LAWYERS OPPOSE THE STAMP ACT. 

stances, or for any purposes whatever. The effect 
of such a resolution, was to put an entire stop to 
the transaction of all legal business, and thus ren- 
der the odious act wholy unproductive as a source 
of revenue. It was the most efficient measure, 
therefore, that could have been adopted, and the 
more creditable to them, inasmuch as they were 
likely to be the principal sufferers by it. Their 
wise and patriotic example was much applauded at 
the time, and was soon followed in other Colonies ; 
but, like every thing else of interest and import- 
ance connected with New Jersey, it hardly receives 
a passing notice on the page of American history. 
The truth is, Massachusetts and Virginia seem to 
have monopolized, in a great measure, all the glory 
of the Revolution. 

On the twentieth of September, the day after 
this meeting, Chief Justice Smyth desired the mem- 
bers of the Bar to attend him in a body, that he 
might lay before them some matters for their con- 
sideration. A report had been in circulation, that 
he had solicited the appointment of distributor of 
stamps. This he denied upon his honor. After 
setting himself right upon that point, he proceeded 
to propose to them certain questions, to which he 
desired a separate answer from each. 

The first was ; — " Whether if the stamps should 



QUESTIONS OF CHIEF JUSTICE SMYTH. 161 

arrive, and be placed at the city of Burlington, by 
or after the first of November, they would, as prac- 
titioners, agree to purchase them for their neces- 
sary legal proceedings ?" To this they answered, 
" that they would not, but rather suffer their pri- 
vate interests to give way to the public good, pro- 
testing against all riotous proceedings." 

The next question was ; — " Whether in their 
opinion, the duties could possibly be paid in gold 
and silver ?" They answered, " that they could not 
be paid in gold and silver, even for one year." 

The last question was ; — " Whether, as the act 
required the Governor and Chief Justice to super- 
intend the distribution of stamps, he would be 
obliged to accept the appointment of distributor, 
in case the Governor should fix upon him for that 
office ?" Their answer was, " that the Governor 
was not empowered by the act to appoint ; that if 
he was, it was left to the option of the Chief Jus- 
tice whether to accept or not ; and that it would 
be incompatible with his office as Chief Justice." 

The Chief Justice seems to have been entirely 
satisfied with these answers, and to have acted 
upon the advice thus given him. In fact, before 
the arrival of the day on which the act was to take 
effect, every distributor of stamps in America had 
resigned. The effect of these proceedings was to 
11 



162 ANOTHER MEETING OF THE BAR. 

produce a complete cessation of all legal business. 
The stamps arrived, but no one would purchase 
them. The Courts of justice were shut up. 

But this state of things could not last long. 
The people were becoming impatient of its continu- 
ance, and tired of mere passive resistance. Asso- 
ciations had sprung up in nearly all the Colonies, 
under the title of " The Sons of Liberty," who were 
in favor of setting the provisions of the act at open 
defiance. Efforts were made to induce the lawyers 
of New Jersey to transact business without the use 
of stamps. Another meeting of the Bar was pro- 
posed. Heretofore, all had been done in perfect 
harmony. There had not been a single dissenting 
voice. But now, the line began for the first time to 
be drawn, between those who thought they had 
gone far enough, and those who were willing to go 
farther. We have a letter from David Ogden, to 
Philip Kearney, in which he declares himself op- 
posed to another meeting of the Bar, and expresses 
the hope, that they would continue to pursue the 
peaceful method they had adopted, until the Stamp 
Act was repealed. 

The meeting, nevertheless, took place. It was 
held at New Brunswick, on the thirteenth of Feb- 
ruary, 1766. The Sons of Liberty, to the number 
of several hundred, took care to be present at the 



RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE BAR. 



163 



same time, and united in a written request to the 
members of the Bar, urging them to proceed to bu- 
siness as usual without stamps, and to use their in- 
fluence to have the Courts of justice opened. The 
meeting, while they agreed to preserve that happy 
state of peace and tranquillity which had thus far 
been maintained in the Province, at the same time 
resolved, that if the Stamp Act was not repealed 
by the first day of April following, they would re- 
sume their practice as usual ; and they appointed a 
Committee of two, to wait upon the Sons of Li- 
berty, and assure them, that if the act was not sus- 
pended or repealed, they would join them in oppos- 
ing it with their lives and fortunes. 

These were bold and spirited resolutions. Even 
in Massachusetts — generally in advance of the other 
Colonies — the most patriotic of the lawyers deem- 
ed it impossible to conduct judicial business, in 
open disregard of an act of Parliament, however 
unjust and tyrannical it might be ; and nothing but 
a resolution of the Assembly emboldened them to 
venture upon such a step. 1 And in Philadelphia, 
at a numerous meeting of the members of the Bar, 
held a short time before the Stamp Act was to go 
into operation, upon the question being submitted, 

1 Grahame's Col. Hist., II. 405. 



164 COMPLAINTS AGAINST LAWYERS. 

whether they should intermit all business, or carry 
it on without stamps and set the act at defiance, 
only three individuals were found, who were will- 
ing to risk the consequences of going on without 
stamps. John Dickinson strenuously opposed the 
adoption of the measure, upon the ground, that the 
Colonies were bound by all acts of Parliament. 1 
Before the arrival of the day, however, named in 
the resolutions of the Bar of New Jersey, the 
Stamp Act was repealed, and all further proceed- 
ings upon their part became unnecessary. 

In 1769 and 70, and while Chief Justice Smyth 
was on the Bench, the most serious complaints 
were made against the lawyers of New Jersey, fol- 
lowed, I regret to say, in some instances, by tu- 
mults and riots of the most disgraceful character. 
For many years, complaints had been made, from 
time to time, of the abuses practised by attorneys, 
of the multitude of lawsuits, and the expenses of 
judicial proceedings. During Governor Morris's 
administration, repeated efforts were made by the 
Assembly to correct these evils, so far as they were 
thought to have any real existence ; but the mea- 
sures which they adopted for that purpose, were 
not so fortunate as to meet with the approbation 

1 Sanderson's Biography of the Signers, II. 312. 



COMPLAINTS AGAINST LAWYERS. J65 

of the Governor and Council. In Governor Frank- 
lin's time, these complaints grew louder, and be- 
came more frequent, until, in 1769, so many memo- 
rials were presented to the Assembly upon the sub- 
ject, and in language so strong, as to indicate a 
very wide-spread excitement. A pecuniary crisis 
had arrived in the Colony, not unlike one of those 
periods of financial embarrassment, through which 
we have since occasionally passed. Money was 
scarce, prices were low, business in all its branches 
depressed, and property of all kinds greatly depre- 
ciated. Creditors grew clamorous, debtors were 
unable to pay, prosecutions were set on foot, and 
judgments and executions followed as of course. 
The people — as is not unusual in such cases — 
looking round for the causes of their sufferings, and 
not taking the trouble to search very far for them — 
ascribed them all to the lawyers. It never seems 
to have occurred to them, that the multiplicity of 
lawsuits — which was the principal topic of com- 
plaint — might have been the effect, rather than the 
cause, of the universal decay of trade, and the en- 
tire prostration of the business of the country. 

However, the excitement was not the less vio- 
lent, because it was unreasonable. The table of the 
Assembly groaned beneath the weight of petitions 
which were daily presented, praying for relief, and 



]QQ COMPLAINTS AGAINST LAWYERS. 

invoking vengeance on the heads of the attorneys. 
It was almost impossible for the House not to 
catch the contagion. Individual members of the 
profession were pointed out by name, and charges 
preferred against them. Among others, Mr. Ber- 
nardus Legrange was accused of having taken ex- 
orbitant fees in certain suits brought by him, and 
was ordered to answer at the bar of the House. 
He appeared, and delivered a written defence, and 
offered in evidence a number of affidavits. But 
the Assembly — not unwilling perhaps to find a vic- 
tim, with which to appease the popular fury — re- 
solved, that the charges had been sustained, and 
ordered their Speaker to reprimand him at the bar 
of the House — which was accordingly done. The 
ground upon which he appears to have been con- 
victed was, that the Chief Justice, and his associ- 
ate on the Bench, had certified to the House, that 
the fees complained of were unnecessary in the 
prosecution of the suits, and not warranted by law. 
But it turned out that the Judges had been entirely 
mistaken, and Mr. Lagrange had the satisfaction, a 
short time afterwards, of laying before the Assem- 
bly, certificates of the Chief Justice, and his asso- 
ciate, Charles Read, stating, that upon further ex- 
amination, they had found the bills of costs in ques- 
tion fully warranted by the practice of the oldest 



COMPLAINTS AGAINST LAWYERS. 



167 



and most respectable practitioners in the Province, 
and that in fact they were lower than were gene- 
rally taxed in like cases. These certificates the 
House ordered to be entered on their minutes, and 
thus Mr. Lagrange stood wholly exonerated. 

Similar charges were made against Samuel Al- 
linson ; but he also produced certificates — signed 
by the Justices of the Supreme Court, and three of 
the most distinguished members of the Bar, Rich- 
ard Stockton, James Kinsey, and John Lawrence, 1 
setting forth, that they had carefully inspected the 
bills of costs complained of, and found them to be 
in every particular correct. With these the House 
were satisfied, and he was accordingly acquitted. 

But the members of the New Jersey Bar — jeal- 
ous as they have always been of their honor — were 
not disposed to sit down quietly, while the whole 
Province was ringing with the most exaggerated 
charges against them. A memorial was therefore 
presented to the House, by James Kinsey and 
Samuel Allinson, on behalf of themselves and others, 
practitioners of law in the Province, referring to 
the petitions presented and the accusations made 
against them, and praying leave to be heard before 
the House, not only to answer the charges of the 

1 John Lawrence resided in the of the gallant Captain James Law- 
city of Burlington, and was the father rence of the navy. 



16 8 JOSEPH REED. 

petitioners, but also to show whence the oppres- 
sions of the people really proceeded. The House 
readily acceded to the prayer of the memorialists, 
and on the twenty-fifth of October, 1769, James 
Kinsey and Samuel Allinson appeared at the bar of 
the Assembly, to plead the cause of the lawyers of 
New Jersey. Nor did they stand alone ; but asso- 
ciated with them was one, who although not of 
many years standing at the Bar, had already reach- 
ed the foremost rank in his profession ; and whose 
subsequent career in another field of action was so 
full of honor and glory. I allude to Joseph Reed, 
a native of New Jersey, and then a lawyer in full 
practice at Trenton ; but who afterwards became 
Adjutant General of the continental army, a mem- 
ber of Congress, and President of the Executive 
Council of Pennsylvania ; the man, who when of- 
fered the sum of ten thousand pounds sterling, and 
the best office in the gift of the crown in America, 
if he would bring about a reunion between the two 
countries, made that memorable reply which has 
immortalized him ; — / am not worth purchasing, but 
such as I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich 
enough to buy me. 1 No report of their argument 

1 Joseph Reed was born at Trenton New Jersey, in 1757. He read law un- 

on the 27th of August, 1741. He was der the care of Richard Stockton, and 

educated at Princeton, where he took was admitted to practise in the Courts 

his Bachelor's degree in the College of of New Jersey in May, 1763. He 



SAMUEL TUCKER. 



169 



has been preserved, but from the character of the 
advocates, we may well presume that it was an ef- 
fort worthy of the occasion, and that they triumph- 
antly vindicated the profession from the aspersions 
which had been cast upon it. 

There was one member of the Assembly, who 
seems to have taken a very active part in foment- 
ing the complaints against the lawyers. This was 
Samuel Tucker, who in 1776, although President 
of the Convention which framed the Constitution 
of the State, and Chairman of the Committee of 
Safety, yet took a protection from the British, and 
renounced allegiance to his country. Now it so 
happened, that Samuel Tucker had been Sheriff of 
the county of Hunterdon ; and as he was so ready 
to charge the attorneys with having taken illegal 
fees, they had the curiosity to look into some of 
his bills as Sheriff, to ascertain how far he had a 
right to stand up as the accuser of others. The re- 
sult of their researches was, the discovery, that Mr. 
Tucker, while Sheriff, had upon several occasions, 

then went to England, to complete return removed to Philadelphia. His 

his professional education, and re- subsequent career is known to all. 

mained a student in the Middle Tern- He died in 1785. His Life and Cor- 

ple for two years. In 1765, he re- respondence, by his grandson, Wil- 

turned to America, and commenced liam B. Reed, of Philadelphia, pub- 

the practice of the law in his native lished in 1847, is one of the most val- 

place. He pursued his profession in uable contributions which has been 

New Jersey until 1770, when he made to our Revolutionary history, 
again went to England, and upon his 



170 SAMUEL TUCKER. 

charged the most exorbitant fees, without the 
slightest color of law. The matter was at once 
brought before the Assembly, and Mr. Tucker was 
now arraigned as the criminal. A memorial, charg- 
ing him with these illegal exactions, was presented 
to the House, signed by James Kinsey, Samuel Al- 
linson, and John Lawrence, in which they declare, 
that the execution fees demanded by Sheriffs were 
the most grievous oppression under which the peo- 
ple labored — that while attorneys were obliged to 
have their bills of costs taxed by the Court, and 
filed with the Clerk, the Sheriffs were under no 
such obligation — and that these execution fees be- 
ing frequently confounded with the costs of the 
suit, the lawyer was loaded with the whole censure. 
The House spent much time in the investiga- 
tion of these charges ; and Mr. Tucker, being a 
member of that body, had of course every oppor- 
tunity of defending himself, and was not likely to 
be convicted without very clear proof of his guilt. 
But the result was, the adoption by a large majo- 
rity of the following resolution : — " That it is the 
opinion of this House, that the said Samuel Tucker 
has taken excessive and illegal fees, not warranted 
by the laws of the Province, and that the same are 
oppressive, and a very great grievance." After 
this, I presume, Mr. Tucker let the attorneys alone. 



RIOTS IN MONMOUTH AND ESSEX. 



171 



But the spirit of hostility to the lawyers, did 
not vent itself merely in petitions to the Assembly. 
It proceeded in some instances to open violence. 
In July, 1769, a multitude of persons assembled in 
a riotous manner at Freehold, in the county of 
Monmouth, and endeavored to prevent the lawyers 
from entering the Court House, and transacting bu- 
siness. But the tumult was at this time quelled, 
owing in a great measure to the spirited exertions 
of Richard Stockton. " While all men were di- 
vided betwixt rash or timid counsels, he only with 
wisdom and firmness seized the prudent mean, ap- 
peased the rioters, punished the ringleaders, and 
restored the laws to their regular course." 1 But 
at the Term of January, 1760, a more successful 
effort was made. On the day appointed for hold- 
ing the County Court, a large number of people 
came together, armed with clubs and other of- 
fensive weapons, and by their violence and threats, 
drove the attorneys from the bar, and set the laws 
at defiance. Riots of a similar nature occurred 
about the same time in the county of Essex, and 
among other outrages perpetrated, was the setting 
fire to the stables and out-houses of David Ogden. 

A special Commission was at once issued for 

1 Dr. Smith's Funeral Discourse upon Mr. Stockton, p. 40. 



172 GOV. FRANKLIN CONVENES THE ASSEMBLY. 

the trial of the offenders, and to give weight and 
dignity to it, a number of gentlemen of rank and 
character were associated with the Justices of the 
Supreme Court. In Essex the rioters were prompt- 
ly punished; but in Monmouth, where the disaf- 
fection was more general, they were screened from 
chastisement by the sympathy of their fellow- 
citizens. 

A meeting of the Legislature was also called, 
for the purpose of reviving and continuing process 
in the Courts of the county of Monmouth, and 
adopting such measures as might be necessary, to 
vindicate the majesty of the law, and support the 
authority of government. Governor Franklin sent 
a message to the Assembly, recommending the 
passage of a number of laws, which he thought the 
exigencies of the occasion required ; and telling 
them very plainly, that in his opinion, this cry 
against lawyers was raised only for the purposes of 
deception, and that the unwillingness of some to 
pay their just debts, and the inability of others, 
were the true causes of all the difficulties that had 
arisen. The House in reply assured the Governor, 
that they would ever discountenance such riotous 
proceedings, and would heartily join in such mea- 
sures, as were necessary to bring the offenders to 
condign punishment; and they declared, that the 



CHIEF JUSTICE SMYTH. 



173 



best remedy against any abuses from the practition- 
ers of the law, was one, which the people had in 
their own hands, namely, a patriotic spirit of fru- 
gality arid industry, and an honest care to fulfil con- 
tracts. 

It might be worth while to inquire, whether 
those who thus made war upon the lawyers, were 
equally ready to take up arms against the enemies 
of their country, in the contest which soon follow- 
ed. We know there were a good many Tories in 
the county of Monmouth, as well as in other parts 
of the State ; and if the truth were known, I sus- 
pect it would be found, that among those who took 
sides with the British, were included most of the 
individuals who were engaged in these riotous pro- 
ceedings. Nor is this mere conjecture. The same 
thing happened precisely in North Carolina, where 
in 1771, a body of men, to the number of about 
fifteen hundred, calling themselves " Regulators," 
and complaining of the oppressions attending the 
practice of the law, rose in arms, for the purpose 
of exterminating lawyers, and shutting up the 
Courts of justice. And yet most of these very per- 
sons, in the Revolution, joined the royal party, and 
enlisted under the King's banner. 1 Nor should this 

1 Grahame's Col. Hist., II. 466. Sabine's American Loyalists, 26. 



174 CHIEF JUSTICE SMYTH. 

surprise us. The freedom for which our fathers 
contended, was not an unlicensed freedom, but a 
liberty regulated by law. 

In 1772, Chief Justice Smyth was appointed 
one of the Commisioners to examine into the af- 
fair of the burning of the British Schooner Gaspee, 
by a party of Rhode Island Whigs. Wanton, the 
Governor of Rhode Island, Horsmanden, Chief 
Justice of New York, Oliver, Chief Justice of Mas- 
sachusetts, and Auchmuty, Judge of Admiralty, 
were associated with him in the Commission. 
They began their sitting at Newport, on the fifth 
of January, 1773, and continued in session until the 
twenty-fourth of June. But although the most 
diligent and searching inquiries were made, and 
large rewards offered for the discovery of the of- 
fenders, not a particle of evidence could be pro- 
cured against a single individual. 1 This is the 
" Court" alluded to, in the address of the first Con- 
gress, to the inhabitants of the Colonies, where it 
is said, " A Court has been established at Rhode 
Island, for the purpose of taking colonists to Eng- 
land to be tried." It was a Court of Inquiry only ; 
and if any delinquents had been detected, they 
were to have been sent to England for trial. 2 

1 Grahame's Col. Hist., II. 467. s Griffith's Historical Notes, p. 
Gordon. Holmes. 261. 



CHARGE TO THE GRAND JURY OF ESSEX. 175 

The time had now arrived, when it became ne- 
cessary for every man to decide upon the part 
which he would take in the approaching contest. 
It is due to Chief Justice Smyth to say, that he 
never seems for one moment to have faltered in his 
course. He was throughout, a firm and consistent 
loyalist. Nor was he at any pains to conceal his 
sentiments. Thus, in a charge to the Grand Jury 
of the county of Essex, at the Term of November, 
1774, he alluded to the troubled state of the times, 
and among other things observed, " that the imagi- 
nary tyranny three thousand miles distant," was 
less to be feared and guarded against, than the 
" real tyranny at our own doors." This was bold 
language to be uttered, at such a time, and in such 
a place ; and it drew from the Grand Jury a reply, 
so spirited and patriotic, that it deserves a conspic- 
uous place among the memorials of our Revolu- 
tionary history. 

After expressing their obligations to the Chief 
Justice for his " friendly admonitions," and the 
" paternal tenderness" he had evinced for their wel- 
fare, they proceed to say : — " But respecting the 
tyranny at the distance of three thousand miles, which 
your Honor is pleased to represent as imaginary, 
we have the unhappiness widely to differ from you 
in opinion. The effect, Sir, of that tyranny is too 



176 REPLY OF THE GRAND JURY OF ESSEX. 

severely felt, to have it thought altogether vision- 
ary. We cannot think, Sir, that taxes imposed 
upon us by our fellow subjects, in a Legislature in 
which we are not represented, is an imaginary, but 
that it is a real and actual tyranny ; and of which 
no nation whatsoever can furnish a single instance. 
We cannot think, Sir, that depriving us of the in- 
estimable right of trial by jury ; seizing our per- 
sons, and carrying us for trial to Great Britain, 
is a tyranny merely imaginary. Nor can we think 
with your Honor, that destroying Charters, and 
changing our forms of Government, is a tyranny 
altogether ideal : — That an Act passed to protect, 
indemnify, and screen from punishment, such as 
may be guilty even of murder, is a bare idea ; — 
That the establishment of French Laws and Popish 
religion in Canada, the better to facilitate the arbi- 
trary schemes of the British Ministry, by making 
the Canadians instruments in the hands of power 
to reduce us to slavery, has no other than a mental 
existence. In a word, Sir, we cannot persuade our- 
selves, that the Fleet now blocking up the port of 
Boston, consisting of ships built of real English 
oak, and solid iron, and armed with cannon of pon- 
derous metal, with actual powder and ball ; nor the 
Army lodged in the Town of Boston, and the forti- 
fications thrown about it, — substantial and formida- 



REPLY OF THE GRAND JURY OF ESSEX. 



177 



ble realities, — are all creatures of the imagination. 
These, Sir, are but a few of the numerous grievan- 
ces under which America now groans. These are 
some of the effects of that deliberate plan of tyran- 
ny, concerted at ' three thousand miles distance,' 
and which, to your Honor, appears only like the 
6 baseless fabric of a vision.' To procure redress 
of these grievances, which to others assume the 
form of odious and horrid realities, the Continent, 
as we learn, has very naturally been thrown into 
great commotions ; and as far as this County in par- 
ticular has taken part in the alarm, we have the 
happiness to represent to your Honor, that in the 
prosecution of measures for preserving American 
liberties, and obtaining the removal of oppressions, 
the people have acted in all their popular assem- 
blies (which it is the right of Englishmen to con- 
vene whenever they please) with the spirit, temper, 
and prudence, becoming freemen and loyal sub- 
jects." 

And they conclude, by expressing their hearty 
wishes, that while the great cause of liberty was so 
warmly, and at the same time so peaceably vindi- 
cated by all honest Americans, no bias of self- 
interest, no fawning servility to those in power, no 
hopes of future preferment, would induce any man 
to lend his helping hand to the unnatural and dia- 
12 



178 DESTRUCTION OF THE TEA. 

bolical work, of riveting those chains which were 
forging for them, at the distance of three thousand 
miles. 1 How this keen rebuke was received by the 
Chief Justice, we are not informed. 

The destruction of the tea in Boston is familiar 
to all. It is not so generally known, that we had 
in New Jersey a little affair of our own of the same 
kind. The captains of the tea ships destined for 
Philadelphia, did not deem it safe to land their car- 
goes there, and most of them returned to England. 
One however, in the brig Greyhound, ventured up 
the Cohansey, and discharged at Greenwich, a quiet 
little village in the County of Cumberland, where a 
popular outbreak was never dreamed of. The 
tea was landed without resistance, and deposited in 
the cellar of a house fronting the market-place. 
But on the twenty-second of November, 1774, about 
forty men assembled in the dusk of the evening, de- 
liberately took possession of the tea, removed the 
chests from the cellar, piled them up in an adjoin- 
ing field, and made a bonfire of them. 2 

We are indebted to one of our venerable Vice 
Presidents, Col. Robert G. Johnson, for the names 
of many of these ardent and resolute patriots. One 

1 A copy of this address will be 2 Johnson's History of Salem, p. 
found in Clarke and Force's Ameri- 123. 
can Archives. Fourth series, vol. i. 
p. 967. 



SUITS FOR DESTRUCTION OF THE TEA. 179 

of them was the late Ebenezer Elmer, father of the 
Hon. Lucius Q. C. Elmer, of Bridgeton ; another 
was Richard Howell, afterwards Governor of the 
State ; a third was James Ewing, father of the dis- 
tinguished Chief Justice of New Jersey ; and a 
fourth was the Rev. Andrew Hunter, 1 a man as dis- 
tinguished for his piety as his patriotism, and who 
was a chaplain in the American army, during the 
whole of the Revolutionary war. His second wife 
was the daughter of Richard Stockton, the signer 
of the Declaration of Independence ; and one of his 
sons became Attorney General of the State. 

Suits were brought in the Supreme Court, by 
the owners of the tea, for the recovery of damages, 
against those who had been concerned in the de- 
struction of it ; but the Whigs of the County held 
a meeting, and resolved that funds should be raised 
for the purpose of defending the actions. Joseph 
Reed, and Charles Pettit, of Philadelphia, were em- 
ployed by the owners of the tea ; and Joseph Bloom- 
field, afterwards Governor of New Jersey, Elias 
Boudinot, of Elizabethtown, Jonathan Dickinson 

1 His father, the Rev. Andrew ergies, both in and out of the pulpit, 
Hunter, was the beloved and vene- to awaken amongst the people a spirit 
rated pastor of the Presbyterian of resistance to the arbitrary and op- 
church of Greenwich, in the county pressive measures of the British gov- 
<of Cumberland. He was like his son, ernment. He died in July, 1775. — 
an ardent Whig, and up to the pe- Johnson's History of Salem, p. 91. 
riod of his death, exerted all his en- 



180 SUITS FOR DESTRUCTION OF THE TEA. 

Sergeant 1 of Princeton, and George Read of New- 
castle, were retained on behalf of the Defendants. 
The suits, however, were never brought to trial. 
The Plaintiffs being non-residents, a rule was ob- 
tained to file security for costs, and no further pro- 
ceedings appear to have been taken. 

At the next term of the Oyer and Terminer, for 
the County of Cumberland, Chief Justice Smyth 
presided ; and it was probably the last opportunity 
which he had, of making a display of his loyalty 
from the Bench. He inveighed with much severity 
against the "wanton waste of property," and the 
flagrant breach of the peace, which had been com- 
mitted, and charged the Grand Jury strongly upon 

1 Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, ton was burnt by the British army 
was born near Princeton in 1746. in its march through New Jersey in 
He was graduated in the College of 1776. In 1777, upon his being in- 
New Jersey in 1762. After reading vited to accept the office of Attorney 
law with Richard Stockton, he com- General of Pennsylvania, he removed 
menced practice at Princeton, and to the city of Philadelphia. He died 
pursued his profession there up to the in 1793, of yellow fever, to which he 
period of the Revolution. He was a was exposed by his benevolent exer- 
member of the Provincial Congress of tions as one of the committee of 
New Jersey in 1775, and 1776, and twelve, who offered their services to 
took an active part in their proceed- the city during the prevalence of the 
ings. He was one of the Committee disease. He had an active and pow- 
that drafted the first Constitution of erful mind, and was as distinguished 
New Jersey. In February, 1776, he for his moral as for his intellectual 
was elected a delegate from New qualities. He was the father of the 
Jersey to the general Congress then Honorable John Sergeant of Philadel- 
sitting in Philadelphia. He took his phia ; and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Mil- 
seat in that body, but resigned it be- ler, of Princeton, married one of his 
fore the Declaration of Independence daughters, 
was adopted. His house in Prin.ce- 



LAWYERS IN THE REVOLUTION. 18 1 

the subject. But the Whigs of Cumberland were 
as inflexible as those of Essex. The Grand Jury 
came into Court, without bringing in any bills. He 
sent them out a second time, but they still refused 
to find any indictments. 1 

But here we must part with Chief Justice Smyth. 
When the Revolution broke out, he removed to 
Philadelphia, where he died. His reputation as a 
Judge was highly respectable, but it was eclipsed 
by that of his more distinguished associates upon 
the Bench, of whom we are now to speak. 

In the struggle for independence, a majority of 
the lawyers in the Colonics, were undoubtedly 
Whigs. Most of the speakers and advocates on 
the popular side were members of the Bar ; and 
one of the objects of the " Stamp Act," was to 
drive from the profession those, who were perpetu- 
ally annoying the royal Governors, and who were 
termed by a member of the House of Commons, 
" mere pettifoggers." But still it has been said, 
that the " giants of the law" in the Colonies, were 
nearly all Loyalists. This no doubt was to some 
extent true. In fact, the anti-revolutionary Bar of 
Massachusetts and New York, furnished the Courts 
of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada, for 
many years, with their most distinguished Judges. 2 

1 Johnson's History of Salem, p. a Sabine's American Loyalists, p. 
125. 52. 



182 DAVID OGDEN.* 

One of these giants of the law in New Jersey, 
was David Ogden, an associate Judge of the Su- 
preme Court, while Frederick Smyth was Chief Jus- 
tice. He was perhaps the first of a race of men, 
afterwards numerous in New Jersey, and which I 
trust will never become extinct ; I mean thorough- 
bred lawyers, — men, who love their profession, who 
devote themselves to it, who are satisfied with its 
honors, and look not beyond it for distinction. The 
name of Ogden seems to belong in an especial man- 
ner to the Bar of New Jersey. For the last 
hundred and twenty years, never has there been a 
time, when the profession has not been graced by 
at least one eminent individual of that name. 

David Ogden sprung from an ancient and re- 
spectable family that came to New England at an 
early day, and thence removed to Long Island and 
New Jersey. He was a son of Josiah Ogden, 
who for many years represented the county of Es- 
sex in the Colonial Assembly ; and a brother of 
Dr. Jacob Ogden, a distinguished physician, who 
was born and educated in Newark, but subse- 
quently settled in Jamaica, Long Island, where he 
died in 1780. 1 David Ogden was born in Newark, 
somewhere about the year 1707. He completed 

1 For a notice of Dr. Jacob Ogden, see Thompson's History of Long Isl- 
and. I. 275. Note. 



DAVID OGDEN. ] 83 

his education at Yale College, where he was gradu- 
ated in 1728 ; and after reading law for some years 
in the city of New York, he returned to his native 
State, to pursue his profession and to become one 
of its brightest ornaments. He was not a man of 
genius, in the ordinary acceptation of the term — a 
quality, by the by, which is quite as apt to mar as 
to make the fortune of a lawyer — but of clear head, 
of strong sense, and of sound judgment. And, 
what was of more importance still, he was a most 
diligent student, and of untiring industry and appli- 
cation. Up at four in the morning, winter and 
summer, he had done a day's work, before most of 
his professional brethren were out of their beds. 
He rose therefore rapidly in his profession ; soon 
acquired an extensive and lucrative practice ; and, 
for many years, stood confessedly at the head of 
the Bar in New Jersey. He was frequently con- 
cerned in the trial of important causes in the city of 
New York, where, if he had any equal, he certainly 
had no superior. But here, he was for a long time 
without a rival. He was looked up to as an oracle 
of the law, and his opinions had almost the weight 
of judicial decisions. 

In 1772, he was appointed a Judge of the Su- 
preme Court ; and probably, no man ever brought 
to that station qualifications of a higher order. 



184 DAVID OGDEN. 

Solid rather than brilliant ; more distinguished for 
accuracy of judgment than fertility of invention, and 
for clearness of apprehension than for quickness of 
perception ; of deep learning ; of long practice ; 
and of unsullied integrity ; he seemed to combine 
every property requisite for a Judge. 1 But, unhap- 
pily for him, he was not long permitted to display 
these qualities. The period was approaching, 
when laws were to be silenced by the din of arms, 
and a new scene was to present itself, in which he 
was not so well fitted to act a part. We have 
seen, in reference to the Stamp Act, that while he 
was ready to concur in all peaceful methods of re- 
dress, he was opposed to every thing that looked 
like forcible resistance. Such continued to be his 
course until hostilities actually commenced ; and 
then, he bid adieu to the place of his birth, to the 
home of his youth, to the seat of his family, of his 
fortune, of his fame. He sought refuge under the 
protection of the British, in the city of New York, 
where he remained during the war. 

1 " Judges," says Lord Bacon, find that which he might have heard 

" ought to be more learned than in due time from the bar ; or to show 

witty, more reverend than plausible, quickness of conceit in cutting off 

and more advised than confident, evidence or counsel too short, or to 

Patience and gravity of hearing is an prevent information by questions, 

essential part of justice ; and an over- though pertinent." — Bacon's Works. 

speaking judge is no well-tuned cynir I. 58. 
bal. It is no grace to a judge first to 



DAVID OGDEN. 185 

But he was not satisfied with mere neutrality. 
He was not only a loyalist, but an active and a de- 
termined one. He was a member of the Board of 
Refugees, established at New York, in 1779, com- 
posed of delegates from the loyalists of the different 
Colonies, and of which Governor Franklin was at 
one time president. 1 After Joseph Galloway, the 
celebrated loyalist of Pennsylvania, retired to Eng- 
land, David Ogden became one of his correspond- 
ents, and his letters are said to evince much bitter- 
ness of feeling. He drew up the outlines of a plan 
for the government of the Colonies, after their 
submission to Great Britain, an event, which, as 
he expressed it, " was certain, and soon to happen, 
if proper measures were not neglected." By this 
plan it was proposed, that the British Parliament 
should formally renounce the right to tax the Colo- 
nies ; that each Colony should have a Governor 
and Council appointed by the Crown, and a House 
of Representatives to be elected by the freeholders 

1 It was mainly through the agen- in a letter written December 5th. 
cy of Daniel Coxe — another Jersey- 1779. "The Deputies of the Re- 
man, and a member of Council dur- fugees from the different Provinces 
ing Governor Franklin's administra- meet once a week. Daniel Coxe, 
tion — that this Board of Refugees or Esq., was appointed to the chair, to 
Loyalists, was organized. He was deprive him of the opportunity of 
made President of the Board, and the speaking, as he has the gift of saying 
reason for putting him in the chair, is little with many words." — Sabine's 
thus given by Christopher Sower, an American Loyalists, p. 232. 
influential loyalist of Pennsylvania, 



18G DAVID OGDEN. 

and residents of the several counties, who were to 
make all necessary laws for the internal regulation 
and government of the respective Colonies ; that 
an American Parliament should be established for 
all the English Colonies on the continent, consist- 
ing of a Lord Lieutenant — Barons, to be created 
for the purpose, and appointed by the Crown out 
of the freeholders and inhabitants of the Colo- 
nies — and a House of Commons, to be elected by 
the respective Houses of Representatives for each 
Colony — which Parliament was to be styled the 
Lord Lieutenant, the Lords, and Commons, of the 
British Colonies in North America. This Ameri- 
can Parliament was to have the power of enacting 
laws in all cases whatsoever, for the general wel- 
fare and safety of the Colonies, which laws were to 
be in force, unfil repealed by his Majesty in Coun- 
cil ; and they were also to apportion among the 
several Colonies, the amount of taxes to be raised 
by each. The mode of raising them, was to be left 
to the General Assembly of each Colony, but in 
case of their refusal or neglect, the American Par- 
liament was to have power to levy the same. It 
was also provided, that the American Parliament 
should have the superintendence and government 
of the several colleges in North America, "most of 
which," it was alleged, " have been the grand 



DAVID OGDEN. 187 

nurseries of the late rebellion, instilling into the 
tender minds of youth principles favorable to re- 
publican, and against a monarchical Government." 
This was a compliment to our literary institutions, 
which by no one was more richly merited, than by 
our own College of New Jersey, of which Dr. With- 
erspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, was the President. 

But that event, that was deemed so "certain 
and soon to happen," luckily never arrived, and 
this ingenious plan, therefore, was of course never 
carried out ; but it is not very difficult to imagine, 
who were intended to be the Barons in the several 
Colonies, that were to compose our American 
House of Lords. 

After the peace, Mr. Ogden went to England, 
and was agent for the New Jersey loyalists in pro- 
secuting their claims to remuneration for losses 
which they had sustained. His own property, 
which was large and valuable, was confiscated by 
the State of New Jersey, and he received a com- 
pensation for it from the British Government. He 
remained in England until 1790, when he returned 
to the United States, where he found in operation, 
a better plan of government than the one which he 
had devised. He took up his residence in Queens 
County, Long Island, where he lived until his death, 



188 DAVID OGDEN. 

which did not happen until the year 1800, when 
he had reached the advanced age of ninety-three. 
While he resided on Long Island, he occasionally 
visited Newark, where he was always received 
with affection and respect, most of the old inhabit- 
ants waiting upon him, and welcoming him. 

He left a number of sons, two of which, Isaac 
and Abraham, were lawyers. Isaac was in full 
practice in Newark at the time of the Revolution, 
and had been Clerk of the Supreme Court. He 
followed the fortunes of his father, joined the Bri- 
tish in New York, remained there during the war, 
then went to England, and afterwards settled in 
Canada, where he was appointed a Judge of the 
Supreme Court, and so continued until his death. 
Abraham resided in Newark, and for many years 
after the Revolution, was a distinguished member 
of the New Jersey Bar. He was United States 
District Attorney, under the administration of 
Washington. As a jury lawyer, he is said to have 
been unrivalled. He was also a fine belles-lettre 
scholar. He was a member of the Legislature in 
1790, and advocated with much force, but without 
success, the calling of a Convention to revise the 
Constitution of the State. 1 He died suddenly in 

1 It was in answer to a speech of Kitchell, a member from the county 
Abraham Ogden's in favor of a revi- of Morris, exclaimed, " When the 
sion of the Constitution, that Aaron fox preaches let the geese beware." 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 189 



1798, when upwards of sixty years of age. 1 Samuel, 
another son, married a sister of Governeur Morris, 
and was a man of considerable distinction. He 
was a member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, 
and of the Convention that framed her Constitution 
of 1790. He was the father of David B. Ogden of 
New York, who after sustaining for some years in 
New Jersey the professional honor of his family 
and name, removed to a sister State, where he has 
long been the pride and ornament of the Bar. To 
him I am indebted for many particulars in the life 
of his grandfather. 

The other associate of Chief Justice Smyth 
upon the Bench of the Supreme Court, at the 
breaking out of the Revolution, was Richard 
Stockton; and with him, I must close these im- 



Tt is to this that Mr. Griffith alludes Court at the time of his death ; and 

in his <Eumenes,'when he says:- Gabriel H. Ford, who for so many 

« One of the opposers of a Conven- years adorned the Bench of the Su- 

tion introduced the fable of the fox preme Court of New Jersey, and who 

and °eese ; and in a very extraordi- is still living in the full enjoyment of 

nary Strain of compliment, represent- all his faculties About the same 

ed an advocate for a Convention in time, there were m the office of Eh- 

the character of the fox, and the ho- sha Boudinot of Newark, Richard 

; r :raudL y as a v * **•- ^°«> wi ^ Griffit n' a ; t 

-Griffith's Eulenes, p. 15, n. b. ander C McWhorter, all of whom 

« Amon. the students in the office I need scarcely say, became eminent 

of A tTam Ogden, were Josiah Og- m their profession Jhey formed the 

dn Hoffman, who became Attorney - Institutio Le g aks» of Newark a 

General of the State of New York, sort of Moot Court, which was kept 

and was a Judge of the Superior up for many years. 



190 RICHARD STOCKTON. 

perfect sketches, already, perhaps, too far ex- 
tended. 

Richard Stockton was born at Princeton, on 
the first day of October, 1730. His ancestors, 
who came from England at an early day, were the 
first settlers in this part of the State ; his great- 
grandfather having purchased of William Penn a 
tract of land, containing between five and six thou- 
sand acres, extending from the Province line, about 
two miles south of Princeton, to the Millstone River, 
near where the village of Kingston now stands. A 
portion of this property has remained in the family 
to the present day. His father, John Stockton, was 
a gentleman of fortune, and of high character, a 
liberal friend of the College of New Jersey, and for 
many years the presiding Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas of the county of Somerset. He 
died in 1757. 

Richard being the -eldest son, great pains were 
bestowed upon his education. After receiving such 
instruction as his native village — always famous 
for its schools — could afford, he was sent to an 
academy at Nottingham, in Maryland, which had 
just been established by the Rev. Samuel Finley, 
afterwards President of the College of New Jersey. 
Dr. Finley was a ripe scholar, and a skillful teach- 
er, and his school became a very celebrated one. 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 



191 



Some of the most distinguished men in our country 
were educated here. It could boast of having in 
it, at one time, a cluster of pupils, all of whom be- 
came eminent in their several departments. Among 
these, were Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. 
and his brother Judge Bush; the Rev. James 
Waddell of Virginia, of whose eloquence so .vivid 
a description is given by Wirt, in his British Spy ; 
the Rev. Alexander McWhorter of Newark, for 
many years, a distinguished supporter of literature 
and religion in the American church; Ebenezer 
Hazard of Philadelphia, Postmaster General of the 
United States in 1782, and author of a valuable 
work in reference to American history, entitled, 
Historical Collections ; Alexander Martin, Gov- 
ernor of North Carolina, and a delegate to the Con- 
vention which framed the Constitution of the United 
States ; John Henry, a member of Congress dur- 
ing the Revolution, a Senator of the United States, 
and Governor of Maryland ; and Colonel John 
Bayard, an eminent Christian and patriot, a mem- 
ber of the old Congress, and Speaker of the House 
of Representatives of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Stockton remained under the care of Dr. 
Finley about two years, and was then sent to the 
College of New Jersey, and received the honors of 
its first annual commencement at Newark, just a 



192 RICHARD STOCKTON". 

hundred years ago. He read law under the direc- 
tion of David Ogden of Newark, whose reputation 
attracted to his office students from all parts of 
the Province. He was admitted to the Bar in the 
Term of August, 1754, and at once entered upon 
the duties of his profession at Princeton. His fine 
natural powers had been highly cultivated and im- 
proved by study and discipline, and his success 
was rapid and brilliant. His practice soon became 
coextensive with the Province, and he was often 
invited to conduct causes in the neighboring Colo- 
nies. Although as a lawyer, he might still have 
been willing to acknowledge David Ogden as his 
master, yet as an eloquent and accomplished advo- 
cate, he had no competitor. 

He pursued his profession for twelve years with 
unremitting ardor. But in 1766, he relaxed from 
his toils, and made a visit to England, where he 
remained some fifteen months. He was received 
with much attention, and was frequently consulted 
by the Marquis of Rockingham, and other distin- 
guished friends of America, upon the affairs of the 
Colonies. In conjunction with Dr. Franklin, he 
had several interviews with the merchants of Lon- 
don, trading to North America, upon the subject 
of a paper currency in the Colonies, and with a 
view to the repeal of the act of Parliament prohib- 
iting future emissions. 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 



193 



While Mr. Stockton was in England, Dr. Fin- 
ley, the President of the College of New Jersey, 
died, and the trustees unanimously elected the Rev. 
Dr. Witherspoon, of Paisley, in Scotland, as his suc- 
cessor. The letter to Dr. Witherspoon, informing 
him of his appointment, was transmitted to Mr. 
Stockton, who was a member of the Board, with a 
request, that he should make a personal application 
to Dr. Witherspoon, to solicit his acceptance. To 
do this, it became necessary that he should take a 
journey to Scotland. The result of his visit, and 
the agency which he had in securing to the Col- 
lege the services of Dr. Witherspoon, will best ap- 
pear, from some extracts which I am enabled to 
make from letters, written by him about this time 
to his wife. 

In a letter, dated February the 9th, 1767, he 
says : — " I have at last concluded to go to Scot- 
land. The friends of the College here, press the 
propriety of the step, as much as those on your 
side the water have done. The event will show, 
whether I take all this labor in vain." Upon his 
return from Scotland, in a letter dated London, 
March the 17th, 1767, he thus writes : — " It is a 
matter absolutely certain, that if I had not gone in 
person to Scotland, Dr. Witherspoon would not have 
had a serious thought of accepting the office — be- 
13 



194 RICHARD STOCKTON. 

cause neither he, nor any of his friends with whom 
he would have consulted, had any tolerable idea of 
the place to which he was invited, had no adequate 
notions of the importance of the College of New 
Jersey, and more than all, would have been entirely 
discouraged from thinking of an acceptance, from 
an artful, plausible, yet wickedly contrived letter, 
sent from Philadelphia to a gentleman of Edin- 
burgh. I have obtained a copy of it, but cannot 
take time to send you any extracts, nor would it be 
necessary if I had time, because the contents of it 
at present had better be unknown. I was so hap- 
py, as to have an entire confidence placed in me 
by Dr. Witherspoon, and thereby I was able to 
come fairly at him. I certainly have succeeded in 
removing all the objections which have originated 
in his own mind. Those of Mrs. Witherspoon I 
could not remove, because she would not give me 
an opportunity of conversing with her, although I 
went from Edinburgh to Paisley, fifty miles, on 
purpose. After I returned from Paisley to Edin- 
burgh, letters passed between Dr. Witherspoon and 
me, whereby I have received some hopes that she 
may be brought over. This firmness is not pecu- 
liar to this case ; for her own husband informed 
me, that she was as much averse to removing from 
an inconsiderable place to Paisley, where he was 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 195 

then minister — from whence we should put a good- 
natured construction, and suppose that it is only 
owing to a certain greatness of mind, averse to 
changing place. I wish we may have reason to 
think so finally. I have taken most effectual mea- 
sures to make her refusal very troublesome to her. 
I have engaged all the eminent clergymen in Edin- 
burgh and Glasgow, to attack her in her intrench- 
ments, and they are determined to take her by 
storm, if nothing else will do. This has a favorable 
aspect, and is at the same time surprising ; because 
they were upon my first coming, so unwilling to 
part with her husband; but the light in which I 
have set the affairs of the College, has made them 
perfect proselytes." . 

Soon after Mr. Stockton's return to New Jer- 
sey, he had the satisfaction of informing the board 
of trustees, that he had received letters from Scot- 
land, informing him, that the difficulties which had 
prevented Dr. Witherspoon's acceptance of the 
Presidentship had been removed, and that upon a 
re-election, he would esteem it a duty to accept 
the appointment. It is due to Mrs. Witherspoon 
to say, that she became perfectly reconciled to her 
husband's removal, and cheerfully accompanied him 
to a distant clime, renouncing all hope of ever re- 
turning to the "land of her fathers' sepulchres." 



] 96 RICHARD STOCKTON. 

Mr. Stockton's reception in Edinburgh was flat- 
tering to him. He was waited upon by the Lord 
Provost and Council, who invited him to a public 
dinner, after which the freedom of the city was 
conferred upon him. A similar honor was paid to 
him in the town of Paisley. He returned to Ame- 
rica in September, 1767. The next year he was 
made a member of Council, and in 1774, he was 
appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court, and took 
his seat upon the Bench alongside of his old and 
honored preceptor, David Ogden. 

His subsequent career is too well known, to 
make it necessary that I should dwell upon it. On 
the twenty-first of June, 1776, he was elected a 
member of the general Congress, then sitting in 
Philadelphia. Among his colleagues, was Dr. 
Witherspoon, who from his first landing upon our 
shores, had proved himself to be in heart an Ame- 
rican ; who from the earliest stage of the contest, 
had warmly espoused the cause of the Colonies ; 
and who shed lustre upon his adopted country, no 
less by his wisdom in council, than by his zeal for 
the promotion of science and learning. The dele- 
gates from New Jersey were instructed to unite 
with the representatives of the other Colonies, in 
the most vigorous measures for the support of the 
just rights and liberties of America; and if it 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 



197 



should be thought expedient and necessary, to join 
in declaring the United Colonies independent of 
Great Britain. 

Mr. Stockton was present during the debates in 
Congress, which preceded the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; in a short but energetic speech, he ex- 
pressed his full concurrence in the measure, and 
had the honor of affixing his name to that immortal 
instrument. 1 But if there was honor, there was 



1 Mr. Sedgwick, in his Life of Gov- 
ernor Livingston, p. 194, note, ob- 
serves, that the New Jersey de- 
legation, consisting of Witherspoon, 
Stockton and others, arrived after the 
Declaration had been signed, but 
were allowed to affix their names to 
it. This statement is made on the 
authority of a letter from Samuel 
Adams to Richard Henry Lee, dated 
July 15th, 1776, in which the follow- 
ing expressions occur : — " We were 
more fortunate than we expected, in 
having twelve of the thirteen Colo- 
nies in favor of the all-important 
question. The delegates of New 
Jersey were not empowered to give 
their voice on either side. Their 
Convention has since acceded to the 
Declaration, and published it, even 
before they received it from Con- 
gress." — R. H. Lee's Mem., vol. i , 
p. 183. 

This is unquestionably high autho- 
rity, nor is it easy to see, how Mr. 
Adams could have been mistaken 
with regard to a matter of this kind. 
And yet it is very certain, that the 



delegates from New Jersey were em- 
powered to vote in favor of Independ- 
ence, and that they did do so. They 
took their seats in Congress some 
days before the final question was 
taken upon the Declaration, and par- 
ticipated in the debates which pre- 
ceded its adoption. They were ap- 
pointed on the 21st of June, after the 
proposition to declare Independence 
had been brought forward in Con- 
gress, and with a full knowledge of 
that fact ; and they were expressly 
authorized " to join with the delegates 
of the other Colonies in declaring the 
United Colonies independent of Great 
Britain, and entering into a Confed- 
eration for union and common de- 
fence." On the 28th of June, as ap- 
pears by the Journal, Mr. Hopkinson 
appeared in Congress, and presented 
the instructions under which he and 
his colleagues were appointed. — Jour- 
nals of Congress, vol. ii., p. 230. 
How then Mr. Adams, writing on 
the 15th of July, could have said, 
that the New Jersey delegates were 
not empowered to give their voice on 



198 RICHARD STOCKTON. 

also peril in it ; and no one of those illustrious men 
hazarded more, or suffered more, than he did. His 
residence at Princeton was directly in the route 
of the victorious British Army, in its triumphant 
march through New Jersey. His happy home 
was soon the scene of desolation, his estate was 
laid waste, his property pillaged and destroyed. 
Compelled to fly with his wife and children to a 
place of safety, he sought refuge in the house of an 
old friend and fellow-patriot in the county of Mon- 
mouth. But the place of his retreat was soon dis- 
covered by a party of refugee royalists, who drag- 
ged him from his bed at night, subjected him to 
every species of insult and indignity, exposed him 
to all the severity of a most inclement season, hur- 
ried him to Amboy, and thence to the city of New 
York, where he was ignominiously thrown into a 
common jail. Here his treatment was so severe 
and inhuman, as to call for the interposition of 

either side, is inexplicable. That Dr. H. Lee's Mem., vol. i. 176. So when 
Witherspoon was present during the a distinguished member of Congress 
discussion of the question of Inde- said, we were " not yet ripe for a 
pendence, appears from various cir- Declaration of Independence," Dr. 
cumstances. In the original draft of Witherspoon replied, " in my judg- 
the Declaration, among the foreign ment, sir, we are not only ripe, but 
mercenary troops, which George III. rotting." — Saunderson's Biography of 
is upbraided with having sent to in- the Signers, vol. ii. 215. It is equal- 
vade America, the Scotch are men- ly certain that Mr. Stockton was pre- 
tioned. It was upon the motion of sent and took part in the debates. — 
Dr. Witherspoon, or at his instance, Saunderson's Biography of the Sign- 
that this word was stricken out. — E. ers, vol, ii. 192. 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 199 

Congress, who instructed General Washington to 
remonstrate with General Howe, against this wan- 
ton violation of all the rules of civilized warfare. 

He was at length released from his cruel cap- 
tivity, but his constitution had received a shock 
from which it never recovered, and the period of 
his active usefulness was at an end. The few re- 
maining years of his life were imbittered by a can- 
cerous affection, of peculiar malignity, and which 
preyed upon him with the most exquisite pain, from 
which no relief could be obtained but by the use of 
anodynes. But although he did not live to see that 
independence, for which he had done and suffered so 
much, secured and acknowledged, yet he died in the 
full faith and hope of its final accomplishment. He 
expired on the twenty-eighth of February, 1781, at 
his residence in Princeton, in the fifty-first year of 
his age. 1 His remains were taken to the chapel of 

i Mr. Stockton left two sons and and died at Princeton, October 2nd 

four daughters. Both of his sons be- 1821. Mary was married to the Rev. 

came very eminent as lawyers. Rich- Dr. Andrew Hunter, of whom mention 

ard, the eldest, died at Princeton, has already been made ; she died at 

March 7th, 1823. Lucius Horatio Princeton, March 18th, 1846. Abby, 

died at Trenton, May 26th, 1835. the youngest daughter, and only sur- 

Julia, his eldest daughter, was mar- viving child of Mr. Stockston, was 

ried to Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was married to Robert Field, of White- 

also a signer of the Declaration of hill, in the county of Burlington. She 

Independence. She lived to an ad- is still living at Princeton, 
vanced age, and died in Philadelphia, Mr. Stockton married the sister of 

July 7th, 1848. Susan was married the late Dr. Elias Boudinot, of Bur- 

to Alexander Cuthbert, of Canada, lington, who was President of Con- 



200 RICHARD STOCKTON. 

the College, where a funeral discourse was pro- 
nounced by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, 
then the Vice-President of that institution. 

" It was one of his earliest honors," said this 
eloquent divine, " to have been a son of this Col- 
lege, and it was one of the first honors of this Col- 
lege, to have given birth to such a son. After hav- 
ing adorned the place of his education by his tal- 
ents, he soon rose to the Board of its Trustees, and 
has ever since been one of its most distinguished 
patrons. 

"Young gentlemen," said he, addressing the 
students of the College, " another of the fathers of 
learning and of eloquence is gone. While you feel 
and deplore his loss as a guardian of your studies, 
and as a model upon which you might form your- 
selves for public life, let the memory of what he 
was excite you to emulate his fame ; let the sight 



gress under the Confederation, a said to have remarked, that there 

member of the House of Representa- were two books in it which she chief- 

tives after the adoption of the Consti- ly valued, and if these were left to 

tution, and the first Director of the her, she would almost be reconciled 

Mint of the United States. Mrs. to the loss of the rest ; one was the 

Stockton was a woman of a highly Bible, and the other Young's Night 

cultivated mind, and of fine literary Thoughts, of which she was a great 

taste. She wrote a number of poeti- admirer. The tradition is, that when 

cal effusions, many of which possess- she returned to her desolate mansion, 

ed no inconsiderable merit. When she these very books were the only ones 

heard of the destruction by the Bri- that were found to have escaped, 
tish of her valuable library, she is 






RICHARD STOCKTON. 201 

of what he is, teach you that every thing human is 
marked with imperfection. 

" At the Bar he practised for many years with 
unrivalled reputation and success. ... In Council 
he was wise and firm, but always prudent and mo- 
derate. . . . The office of a Judge of the Province 
was never filled with more integrity and learning 
than it was by him, for several years before the 
Revolution. ... In his private life, he was easy 
and graceful in his manners; in his conversation 
affable and entertaining, and master of a smooth 
and elegant style even in his ordinary discourse. 
As a man of letters, he possessed a superior genius, 
highly cultivated by long and assiduous application. 
His resarches into the principles of morals and re- 
ligion were deep and accurate, and his knowledge 
of the laws of his country extensive and profound. 
He was well acquainted with all the branches of 
polite learning; but he was particularly admired 
for a flowing and persuasive eloquence, by which 
he long governed in the Courts of Justice." 

Such were the last Judges of our Supreme Pro- 
vincial Court. And thus, its dying glory was the 
brightest. But it was destined to be revived when 
the Colony became a State, and to shine with 
new lustre — graced by a succession of such Chief 



202 RICHARD STOCKTON. 

Justices, as Brearley, and Kinsey, and Kirkpatrick, 
and Ewing — to which, we may not doubt, will 
hereafter be added the names of others no less dis- 
tinguished, but of whom I am not now permitted 
to speak. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX A 



In connection with the Courts of East and West Jer- 
sey, under their Proprietary Governments, it may be well to 
glance at some of the more important laws which were 
enacted. Many valuable provisions which we have in- 
grafted upon the common law, and which now exist in 
our statute book, will be found to have originated at this 
early period. 

The first step towards making lands liable for the pay- 
ment of debts, was taken in East Jersey, in 1679. It was 
enacted, that where an execution issued against a person 
having lands, the defendant should make a conveyance of 
such lands to the plaintiff, in satisfaction of his debt ; and 
upon his refusal to do so, he was to be imprisoned until the 
debt and charges were paid. 1 And, in 1682, provision was 
made for having the lands of a defendant in execution ap- 
praised, and the plaintiff was to take them at their appraised 
value in satisfaction of his debt, paying the overplus, if any. 
to the defendant. 2 

In West Jersey, as early as 1682, lands were made lia- 
ble for the payment of debts, in all cases whatever, when 

1 Grants and Concessions, 136. 2 lb., 253. 



206' APPENDIX A. 

the personal estate of the defendant was insufficient for that 
purpose. 1 

In East Jersey, in 1682, it was provided, that the estate 
of a Feme Covert might be conveyed by a deed acknow- 
ledged in the Court of Common Right, the wife declaring, 
upon a secret examination, that she signed it freely, with- 
out threats or compulsion of her husband. 2 By a subse- 
quent act, this acknowledgment might be made before a 
Judge of any Court of Record in the Province. 3 

By the Fundamental Constitutions of the twenty-four 
Proprietors of East Jersey, it was declared, that there 
should be a public registry for deeds, in each County, and 
that every grant and conveyance of land — except leases for 
three years and under — not registered within six months, 
should be void in law. 4 A similar provision is contained 
in the Concessions and Agreements of the West Jersey 
Proprietors. 5 And, in 1695, a law was passed in West 
Jersey, imposing a penalty of twenty shillings upon every 
person neglecting for the space of six months to have a 
deed recorded. 6 

In East Jersey, proceedings against non-resident debtors 
were authorized in 1682 ; 7 and, in West Jersey, in 1683, an 
act was passed, regulating attachments against absconding 
debtors, and providing for an equitable distribution of their 
goods and estate, among such of their creditors as should 
come in and prove their claim before three of the Magis- 
trates of the Province. 8 

By the laws of West Jersey, executors were required 
to give security for the faithful performance of their trust ; 9 

1 Grants and Concessions, 447. 6 Grants and Concessions, 541. 

2 lb., 235. 7 lb., 266. 

3 lb., 371. ■ lb., 477. 
* lb., 162. 9 lb., 430. 
6 lb., 399. 



APPENDIX A. 207 

and where parents died leaving children, and no estate suf- 
ficient to maintain and bring them up, the Governor was 
to appoint some one to take care of them, and the charges 
thereof were to be borne by the public stock of the Pro- 
vince.' In all trials wherein any of the native Indians 
were concerned, the Jury were to consist of six men of the 
neighborhood, and six of the native Indians. 2 

But while the civil laws and regulations of East and 
West Jersey bore a close resemblance to each other, no- 
thing could be more unlike than their criminal codes. 
While the former exhibits all the sternness and severity of 
Puritan legislation, the latter shows in beautifnl contrast the 
mildness and benignity of Quaker rule. 

In East Jersey there were no less than thirteen distinct 
offences, for which the punishment of death might be in- 
flicted. In this long list of capital crimes, were included 
not only murder, robbery, perjury, burglary, and rape, but 
witchcraft, smiting or cursing parents, and even stealing 
where the thief was incorrigible. 

In West Jersey, on the other hand, there were no capi- 
tal crimes ; no offences for which the punishment of death 
was prescribed. Even in the case of murder and treason, 
it was provided, that the sentence and way of execution 
thereof, should be left to the General Assembly to deter- 
mine, as they in the wisdom of the Lord should judge meet 
and expedient. 3 False witnesses were to be severely fined, 
forever after disabled from giving testimony, and rendered 
incapable of holding any office or employment in the Pro- 
vince. 4 Burglary was punished with whipping for the first 
offence ; and for the second, branding with a T in the fore- 
head ; and for a third, branding in the cheek, and imprison- 

1 Grants and Concessions, 431. 3 Grants and concessions, 404. 

2 lb., 401. * lb., 429. 



208 APPENDIX A. 

ment at hard labor. 1 The thief was to make restitution 
fourfold out of his estate, and for want of such estate, to 
work for his theft until restitution was thereby made. 2 
The punishment for assault, battery, and wounding, was to 
be such, as twelve men of the neighborhood should determine 
upon. 3 Two witnesses were required in all cases ; the ac- 
cused might challenge any mumber of jurors, not exceeding 
thirty-five, without assigning any reason ; and it was pro- 
vided, that in all criminal causes — treason, murder, and 
felony excepted — the prosecutor should have full power to 
forgive the offender, and remit the punishment, either be- 
fore or after judgment. 4 

But it was not merely in the severity of the penal laws, 
that the influence of the Puritans was discernible in the 
early legislation of East Jersey. This but reflected the 
harsher features of their character. There were other en- 
actments, in which their virtues and excellencies shone 
conspicuously forth. Thus, in 1693, an act was passed by 
the General Assembly of East Jersey, for the promotion of 
Education. It was entitled, " An Act for establishing 
Schoolmasters within this Province." Its preamble recites, 
that the cultivation of learning and good manners tends 
greatly to the good and benefit of mankind. It authorized 
the inhabitants of each Township to meet together, and 
choose three men, whose duty it should be to make a rate 
for the salary and maintaining of a Schoolmaster within 
the said Township, for as long a time as they should think 
fit ; and it provided, that the consent and agreement of the 
major part of the inhabitants of the said Township, should 
bind and oblige the remaining part of the inhabitants to sat- 
isfy and pay their shares and proportions of said rate ; and 

1 Grants and Concessions, 573. 3 Grants and Concessions, 434. 

2 lb., 434. * lb., 397. 



APPENDIX A. 



209 



the goods and chattels of persons refusing or neglecting to 
pay were to be distrained and sold. l This act is not only 
the earliest, but I am inclined to think, it is also the very 
best law we have ever had upon the subject of Common 
Schools. Whatever may have been its practical operation, 
it was certainly much more efficient in its provisions, than 
the act which is now in force. 

We may also trace the influence of the Puritans, in the 
pious custom, which was introduced at an early period in 
the history of East Jersey, of setting apart, by public authori- 
ty, a day of Thanksgiving to God for his mercies. In 1676. 
it was solemnly enacted by the General Assembly, that 
" whereas there hath been signal demonstrations of God's 
mercy and favor towards us in this Colony, in the preserving 
and continuing our peace in the midst of wars round about 
us, together with many other mercies which we are sensi- 
ble of, which call aloud for our acknowledgment and thanks- 
giving to the Lord," therefore, " Be it enacted by this As- 
sembly, that there be a day of public Thanksgiving set 
apart throughout the whole Province, to give God the Glory 
and Praise thereof, and oblige us to live to his praise, and 
in his fear always, which day shall be the second Wednes- 
day in November next ensuing." 2 And, in 1679, we find 
the twenty-sixth day of November set apart, by an act of 
Assembly, as a day of Thanksgiving. 3 This appointment of 
a day of Thanksgiving, by the representatives of the people 
convened in General Assembly, was calculated to add 
much to its solemnity, and it may be regretted, that we 
should now give to it no higher sanction than the Procla- 
mation of a Governor. 

1 Grants and Concessions, 328. 3 Grants and Concessions, 137. 

8 lb., 121. 

14 



APPENDIX B. 



INSTRUCTIONS for our Right Trusty and well 
beloved Edward Lord Cornbury, our Cap- 
tain General and Governor in Chief, in and 
over our Province of Nova-Ceesarea, or New- 
Jersey, in America. Given at our Court at St. 
James's, the 16th Day of November, 1702, in 
the first Year of our Reign. 

1. WITH these our Instructions you will receive our 
Commission under our Great Seal of England, constituting 
you our Captain General and Governor in Chief of our 
Province of New- Jersey. 

2. You are with all convenient speed to repair to our 
said Province, and being there arrived, you are to take 
upon you the Execution of the Place and Trust we have 
reposed in you, and forthwith to call together the following 
Persons, whom we do by these Presents appoint and con- 
stitute Members of our Council in and for that Province, 
viz. Edward Hunlock, Lewis Morris, Andrew Bowne, 
Samuel Jennings, Thomas Revill, Francis Devenport, 



APPENDIX B. 211 

William Pinhorne, Samuel Leonard, George Deacon, 
Samuel Walker, Daniel Leeds, William Sandford, and 
Robert Quary, Esqrs. 

3. And you are with all due Solemnity, to cause our 
said Commission under our Great Seal of England, con- 
stituting you our Captain General and Governor in Chief as 
aforesaid, to be read and published at the said Meeting of 
our Council, and to cause Proclamation to be made in the 
several most publick Places of our said Province, of your 
being constituted by us our Captain General and Governor 
in Chief as aforesaid. 

4. Which being done you shall yourself take, and also 
administer to each of the Members of our said Council, so 
appointed by us, the Oaths appointed by Act of Parliament 
to be taken instead of the Oaths of Allegiance and Suprema- 
cy, and the Oath mentioned in an Act, entitled, An Act to 
declare the Alteration in the Oath appointed to be taken, by 
the Act, entitled, An Act for the further Security of his 
Majesty's Person, and the Succession of the Crown in the 
Protestant Line and for extinguishing the hopes of the 
Pretended Prince of Wales, and all other Pretenders and 
their open and Secret Abettors, and for declaring the As- 
sociation to be determined. As also the Test mentioned in 
an Act of Parliament made in the 25th Year of the Reign 
of King Charles the Second, entitled, An Act for prevent- 
ing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants, 
together with an Oath for the due Execution of your and 
their Places and Trusts, as well with regard to the Equal 
and Impartial Administration of Justice in all Causes that 
shall come before you, as otherwise, and likewise the Oath 
required to be taken by Governors of Plantations to do 



212 APPENDIX B. 

their utmost, that the Laws relating to the Plantations be 
observed. 

5. You are forthwith to communicate unto our said 
Council, such and so many of these our Instructions, 
wherein their Advice and Consent are mentioned to be re- 
quisite, as likewise all such others from Time to Time, as 
you shall find convenient for our Service to be imparted to 
them. 

6. And whereas the Inhabitants of our said Province 
have of late Years been unhappily divided, and by their 
Enmity to each other, our Service and their own Welfare 
has been very much obstructed, you are therefore in the 
Execution of our Commission to avoid the Engaging your 
self in the Parties which have been form'd amongst them, 
and to use such Impartiality and Moderation to all, as may 
best conduce to our Service and the good of the Colony. 

7. You are to permit the Members of our said Council 
to have and enjoy Freedom of Debate, and Vote in all Af- 
fairs of publick Concern, that may be debated in Council. 

8. And altho' by our Commission aforesaid, we have 
thought fit to direct that any three of our Councillors make 
a Quorum, it is nevertheless our Will and Pleasure, that 
you do not Act with a Quorum of less than five Members 
except in case of Necessity. 

9. And that we may be always informed of the Names 
and Characters of Persons fit to supply the vacancies 
which shall happen in our said Council, you are to trans- 
mit unto us by one of our Principal Secretaries of State, 
and to our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, with 



APPENDIX B. 



213 



all convenient speed, the Names and Characters of six Per- 
sons Inhabitants of the Eastern Division, and six other Per- 
sons Inhabitants of the Western Division of our said Prov- 
ince, whom you shall esteem the best qualified for that 
Trust, and so from Time to Time when any of them shall 
dye, depart out of our said Province, or become otherwise 
unfit, you are to nominate unto us so many other Persons 
in their stead, that the List of Twelve Persons fit to supply 
the said Vacancies, viz. six of the East, and six out of the* 
West Division as aforesaid, may be always compleat. 

10. You are from Time to Time to send to us as afore- 
said, and to our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, 
the Names and Qualities of any Members by you put into 
our said Council, by the first conveniency after your so 
doing. 

11. And in the Choice and Nomination of the Members 
of our said Council, as also of the principal Officers, Judges, 
Assistants, Justices and Sheriffs, you are allways to take 
care that they be Men of good Life and well affected to 
our Government, of good Estates and Abilities, and not 
necessitous People or much in Debt. 

12. You are neither to augment nor diminish the num- 
ber of our said Council, as it is hereby established, nor to 
suspend any of the present Members thereof without good 
and sufficient cause : And in case of suspension of any of 
them, you are to cause your Reasons for so doing, together 
with the Charges and Proofs against the said Persons, and 
their Answers thereunto (unless you have some extraordi- 
nary reason to the contrary) to be duly entered upon the 
Council Books, and you are forthwith to transmit the same 



214 APPENDIX B. 

together with your Reasons for not entering them upon 
the Council Books, (in case you do not enter them) unto 
us and to our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations as 
aforesaid. 

13. You are to signify our Pleasure unto the Members 
of our said Council that if any of them shall at any Time 
hereafter absent themselves, and continue absent above the 

"space of two Months together from our said Province 
without Leave from you, or from our Governor or Com- 
mander in Chief of our said Province, for the Time being, 
first obtained ; or shall remain absent for the space of two 
Years or the greater Part thereof successively without our 
Leave given them under our royal Sign Manual, their 
Place or Places in our said Council, shall immediately 
thereupon become void, and that we will forthwith appoint 
others in their stead. 

14. And in order to the better consolidating and incor- 
porating the two Divisions of East and West New-Jersey, 
into and under one Government, Our Will and Pleasure is, 
that with all convenient speed, you call together one Gene- 
ral Assembly for the Enacting of Laws for the joint and 
mutual good of the whole ; and that the said General As- 
sembly do sit in the first Place at Perth- Amboy, in East 
New-Jersey, and afterwards the same, or other the next 
General Assembly at Burlington in West New-Jersey ; and 
that all future General Assemblies do set at one or the other 
of those Places alternately, or (in Cases of extraordinary 
Necessity) according as you with the advice of our afore- 
said Council, shall think fit to appoint them. 

15. And our further Will and Pleasure is, that the 
General Assembly so to be called, do consist of four and 



APPENDIX B. 



215 



Twenty Representatives; who are to be chosen in the 
manner following, viz. Two by the Inhabitants House- 
holders of the City or Town of Perth- Amboy, in East 
New-Jersey, two by the Inhabitants House-holders of the 
City and Town of Burlington in West New- Jersey ; Ten 
by the Freeholders of East New-Jersey, and Ten by the 
Freeholders of West New-Jersey ; and that no Person shall 
be capable of being elected a Representative by the Free- 
holders of either Division, or afterwards of sitting in Gene- 
ral Assemblies, who shall not have one Thousand Acres 
of Land of an Estate of Freehold, in his own Right, within 
the Division for which he shall be chosen ; and that no 
Freeholder shall be capable of voting in the Election of 
such Representative, who shall not have one Hundred 
Acres of Land of an Estate of Freehold in his own Right, 
within the Division for which he shall so Vote : And that 
this Number of Representatives shall not be enlarged or 
diminished, or the manner of electing them altered, other- 
wise than by an Act or Acts of the General Assembly 
there, and confirmed by the Approbation of us, our Heirs 
and Successors. 

16. You are with all convenient speed to cause a Col- 
lection to be made of all the Laws, Orders, Rules, or such 
as have hitherto served or been reputed as Laws amongst 
the Inhabitants of our said Province of Nova-Ccssarea or 
New-Jersey, and together with our aforesaid Council and 
Assembly, you are to revise, correct, and amend the same, 
as may be necessary ; and accordingly to enact such and so 
many of them, as by you with the Advice of our said Coun- 
cil and Assembly, shall be judged proper and conducive to 
our Service, and the welfare of our said Province, that 
they may be transmitted unto us, in authentick Form, for 
our Approbation or Disallowance. 



216 APPENDIX B. 

17. You are to observe in the passing of the said Laws, 
and of all other Laws, that the Stile enacting the same, be 
by the Governor, Council and Assembly, and no other. 

18. You are also as much as possible to observe in the 
passing of all Laws, that whatever may be requisite upon 
each different Matter, be accordingly provided for by a dif- 
ferent Law, without intermixing in one and the same Act, 
such Things as have no proper Relation to each other ; 
and you are especially to take care that no Clause or 
Clauses be inserted in, or annexed to any Act which shall 
be Foreign to what the Title of such respective Act 
imports. 

19. You are to transmit authentic Copies of the fore- 
mentioned Laws that shall be Enacted, and of all Laws, 
Statutes, and Ordinances which shall at any Time hereafter 
be made or enacted within our said Province, each of them 
separately, under the publick Seal, unto us and our said 
Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, within three 
Months or by the first opportunity after their being Enact- 
ed, together with Duplicates thereof by the next Convey- 
ance, upon pain of our high displeasure, and of the forfeit- 
ure of that Years Salary, wherein you shall at any Time, 
or upon any pretence whatsoever, omit to send over the 
said Laws, Statutes and Ordinances as aforesaid, within 
the Time above limited, as also of such other Penalty as 
we shall please to inflict. But if it shall happen that dur- 
ing Time of War, no Shipping shall come from our said 
Province or other our adjacent or neighbouring Plantations, 
within three Months after the making such Laws, Statutes 
and Ordinances, whereby the same may be transmitted as 
aforesaid, then the said Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances 



APPENDIX B. 



217 



are to be so transmitted as aforesaid, by the next convey- 
ance after the making thereof, whenever it may happen, 
for our Approbation or Disallowance of the same. 

20. You are to take care that in all Acts or Orders, to 
be passed within that our Province, in any Case for levying 
Money or imposing Fines and Penalties, express mention 
be made that the same is granted or reserved for Us, our 
Heirs or Successors for the publick Uses of that our Pro- 
vince, and the Support of the Government thereof, as by 
the said Act or Orders shall be directed. 

21. And we do particularly require and command, that 
no Money, or value of Money whatsoever, be given or 
granted by any Act or Order of Assembly, to any Gov- 
ernor, Lieutenant Governor, or Commander in Chief of our 
said Province, which shall not according to the Stile of 
Acts of Parliament in England, be mentioned to be given 
and granted unto Us, with the humble desire of such As- 
sembly, that the same be applied to the Use and Behoof of 
such Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or Commander in 
Chief, if we shall so think fit ; or if we shall not approve of 
such Gift or Application, that the said Money or Value of 
Money be then disposed of and appropriated to such other 
Uses as in the said Act or Order shall be mentioned, and 
that from the Time the same shall be raised, it remain in 
the Hands of the Receiver of our said Province until our 
Royal Pleasure shall be known therein. 

22. You shall also propose with the said General As- 
sembly, and use your utmost endeavours with them, that 
an Act be passed for raising and settling a publick Reve- 
nue for defraying the necessary Charges of the Govern- 



218 APPENDIX B. 

ment of our said Province, in which Provision be particu- 
larly made for a competent Salary to yourself, as Captain 
General and Governor in Chief of our said Province, and 
to other our succeeding Captain Generals, for supporting 
the Dignity of the said Office, as likewise due Provision for 
the Salaries of the respective Members of our Council and 
Assembly, and all other Officers necessary for the Adminis- 
tration of that Government. 

23. Whereas it is not reasonable that any of our Colo- 
nies or Plantations should by virtue of any Exemptions or 
other Privileges whatsoever, be allowed to seek and pursue 
their own particular Advantages, by methods tending to 
undermine and prejudice our other Colonies and Planta- 
tions, which have equal Title to our Royal Care ; and 
whereas the Trade and Welfare of our Province of New- 
York, would be greatly prejudiced, if not intirely ruined, 
by allowing unto the Inhabitants of Nova Ccssarea, or 
New-Jersey, any Exemption from those Charges, which the 
Inhabitants of New-York are liable to, you are therefore in 
the settling of a Publick Revenue as before directed, to 
propose to the Assembly, that such Customs, Duties and 
other Impositions be laid upon all Commodities imported or 
exported in or out of our said Province of Nova Ccssarea, 
or New-Jersey, as may equal the Charge that is or shall be 
laid upon the like Commodities in our Province of New- 
York. 

24. And whereas we are willing in the best manner to 
provide for the Support of the Government of our said Pro- 
vince, by setting a Part sufficient allowances to such as 
shall be our Governor or Commander in Chief, residing for 
the Time being within the same. Our Will and Pleasure 
therefore is, that when it shall happen, that you shall be 



APPENDIX B. 



219 



absent from the Territories of New-Jersey and New-York, 
of which we have appointed you Governor, one full Moiety 
of the Salary and of all Perquisites and Emoluments what- 
soever, which would otherwise become due unto you, shall, 
during the Time of your absence from the said Territories, 
be paid and satisfied unto such Governor or Commander in 
Chief who shall be resident upon the Place for the Time 
being, which we do hereby order and allot unto him to- 
wards his Maintenance, and for the better Support of the 
Dignity of that our Government. 

25. Whereas great Prejudices may happen to our Ser- 
vice and the Security of our said Province under your 
Government by your absence from those Parts, without a 
sufficient Cause and especial Leave from us ; for preven- 
tion thereof, you are not upon any pretence whatsoever to 
come to Europe from your Government, without first hav- 
ing obtained Leave for so doing, under our Signet and 
Sign Manual, or by our Order in our privy Council. 

26. You are not to permit any Clause whatsoever to be 
inserted in any Law for the levying Money, or the value 
of Money, whereby the same shall not be made liable to be 
accounted for unto us here in England, and to our high 
Treasurer, or to our Commissioners of our Treasury for 
the Time being. 

27. You are to take care that fair Books of Accounts 
of all Receipts and Payments of all such Money be duly 
kept, and the Truth thereof attested upon Oath, and that the 
said Books be transmitted every half Year, or oftener, to 
our High Treasurer or to our Commissioners of our Trea- 
sury for the Time being, and to our Commissioners for 
Trade and Plantations, and Duplicates thereof by the next 



220 APPENDIX B. 

Conveyance ; in which Books shall be specified, every par- 
ticular Sum raised or disposed of, together with the Names 
of the Persons to whom any Payment shall be made, to the 
End we may be satisfied of the right and due Application 
of the Revenue of our said Province. 

28. You are not to suffer any publick Money whatso- 
ever, to be issued or disposed of otherwise than by War- 
rant under your Hand, by and with the Advice and Con- 
sent of our said Council ; but the Assembly my be never- 
theless permitted from Time to Time to view and examine 
the Accounts of Money, or value of Money, disposed of by 
Virtue of Laws made by them, which you are to signify 
unto them as there shall be occasion. 

29. And it is our express Will and Pleasure, that no 
Law for raising any Imposition on Wines or other strong 
Liquors, be made to continue for less than one whole 
Year : as also that all Laws whatsoever for the good Gov- 
ernment and support of our said Province, be made indi- 
finite, and without Limitation of Time, except the same be 
for a temporary End, which shall expire and have its full 
effect within a certain Time. 

30. And therefore you shall not re-enact any Law 
which shall have been once enacted there by you, except 
upon very urgent Occasions, but in no case more than once 
without our express consent. 

31. You shall not permit any Act or Order to pass in 
our said Province, whereby the Price or Value of the Cur- 
rent Coin within your Government, (whether it be Foreign 
or belonging to our Dominions) may be altered, without 
our particular Leave or Direction for the same. 



APPENDIX B. 



221 



32. And you are particularly not to pass any Law or 
do any Act, by Grant, Settlement, or otherwise, whereby 
our Revenue, after it shall be settled, may be lessened or 
impaired, without our especial leave or Commands therein. 

33. You shall not remit any Fines or Forfeitures what- 
soever, above the Sum of Ten Pounds, nor dispose of any 
Escheats, Fines or Forfeitures whatsoever, until upon sig- 
nifying unto our High Treasurer, or to our Commissioners 
of our Treasury for the Time being, and to our Commis- 
sioners for Trade and Plantations, the Nature of the Offence 
and the Occasion of such Fines, Forfeitures or Escheats, 
with the particular Sums or Value thereof, (which you are 
to do with all speed) you shall have received our Direc- 
tions therein, but you may in the mean Time suspend the 
Payment of the said Fines and Forfeitures. 

34. You are to require the Secretary of our said Pro- 
vince, or his Deputy for the Time being, to furnish you 
with Transcripts of all such Acts and publick Orders as 
shall be made from Time to Time, together with a Copy of 
the Journals of the Council, to the End the same may be 
transmitted unto us, and to our Commissioners for Trade 
and Plantations as above directed, which he is duly to per- 
form upon pain of incurring the forfeiture of his Place. 

35. You are also to require from the Clerk of the As- 
sembly, or other proper Officer, Transcripts of all the 
Journals, and other Proceedings of the said Assembly, to 
the End the same may in like manner be transmitted as 
aforesaid. 

36. Our Will and Pleasure is, that for the better quiet- 
ing the Minds of our good Subjects, Inhabitants of our said 



222 APPENDIX B. 

Province, and for settling the Properties and Possessions 
of all Persons concerned therein, either as General Pro- 
prietors of the Soil under the first original Grant of the 
said Province, made by the late King Charles the Second, 
to the late Duke of York, or as particular Purchasers of 
any Parcels of Land from the said General Proprietors, you 
shall propose to the General Assembly of our said Pro- 
vince, the passing of such Act or Acts, whereby the Right 
and Property of the said General Proprietors, to the Soil of 
our said Province, may be confirmed to them, according to 
their respective Rights and Title ; together with all such 
Quit-Rents as have been reserved, or are or shall become 
due to the said General Proprietors, from the Inhabitants 
of our said Province ; and all such Priviledges as are ex- 
prest in the Conveyances made by the said Duke of York, 
excepting only the Right of Government, which remains 
in us : And you are further to take care, that by the said 
x\ct or Acts so to be passed, the particular Titles and Es- 
tates of all the Inhabitants of that Province, and other Pur- 
chasers claiming under the said General Proprietors, be 
confirmed and settled as of Right does appertain, under 
such Obligations as shall tend to the best and speediest Im- 
provement or Cultivation of the same. PROVIDED AL- 
WAYS, that you do not consent to any Act or Acts, to 
lay any Tax upon Lands that lye unprofitable. 

37. You shall not permit any other Person or Persons 
beside the said General Proprietors, or their Agents, to 
Purchase any Land whatsoever from the Indians within 
the Limits of their Grant. 

38. You are to permit the Surveyors and other Per- 
sons appointed by the forementioned General Proprietors 
of the Soil of that Province, for Surveying and Recording 



APPENDIX B. 223 

the Surveys of Land granted by and held of them, to exe- 
cute accordingly their respective Trusts : And you are 
likewise to permit, and if need be, aid and assist such other 
Agent or Agents, as shall be appointed by the said Pro- 
prietors for that End, to collect and receive the Quit- 
Rents which are or shall be due unto them, from the parti- 
cular Possessors of any Parcels or Tracts of Land from 
Time to Time, PROVIDED ALWAYS, that such Sur- 
veyors, Agents or other Officers appointed by the said Ge- 
neral Proprietors, do not only -take proper Oaths, for the 
due Execution and Performance of their respective Offices 
or Employments, and give good and sufficient Security for 
their so doing, but that they likewise take the Oaths ap- 
pointed by Act of Parliament to be taken instead of the 
Oaths of Allegience and Supremacy, and the Oath men- 
tioned in the aforesaid Act, entitled, An Act to declare the 
Alteration in the Oath appointed to be taken by the Act, 
entitled, An Act for the further Security of his Majesty's 
Person, and the Succession of the Crown in the Protestant 
Line, and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended 
Prince of Wales, and all other Pretenders, and their open 
and Secret Abettors, and for declaring the Association to 
be determined. As also the forementioned Test. And you 
are more particularly to take care that all Lands Purchased 
from the said Proprietors, be cultivated and improved, by 
the Possessors thereof. 

39. You shall transmit unto us, and to our Commission- 
ers for Trade and Plantations, by the first Opportunity, 
a Map with the exact Description of our whole Territory 
under your Government, and of the several Plantations 
that are upon it. 



224 APPENDIX B. 

40. You are likewise to send a List of Officers em- 
ployed under your Government, together with all publick 
Charges. 

41. You shall not displace any of the Judges, Justices, 
Sheriffs, or other Officers or Ministers within our said 
Province, without good and sufficient Cause to be signified 
unto us, and to our said Commissioners for Trade and Plan- 
tations, and to prevent arbitrary removal of Judges and 
Justices of the Peace, you shall not express any Limitation 
of Time in the Commissions which you are to grant, with 
the Advice and Consent of the Council of our said Pro- 
vince, to Persons fit for those Imployments, nor shall you 
execute yourself, or by Deputy, any of the said Offices, 
nor suffer any Persons to execute more Offices than one 
by Deputy. 

42. Whereas we are given to understand that there are 
several Offices within our said Province granted under the 
great Seal of England, and that our Service may be very 
much prejudiced by reason of the Absence of the Pa- 
tentees, and by their appointing Deputies not fit to officiate 
in their stead, you are therefore to inspect the said Offices , 
and to inquire into the Capacity and Behaviour of the Per- 
sons now exercising them, and to report thereupon to us, 
and to our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, what 
you think fit to be done or altered in relation thereunto ; 
and you are upon the misbehaviour of any of the said Pa- 
tentees, or their Deputies, to suspend them from the Exe- 
cution of their Places, till you shall have represented the 
whole matter and received our Directions therein; but you 
shall not by colour of any Power or Authority hereby or 
otherwise granted or mentioned to be granted unto you, 
take upon you to give, grant or dispose of any Office or 



APPENDIX B. 225 

Place within our said Province, which now is or shall be 
granted under the Great Seal of England, and further then 
that you may upon the vacancy of any such Office or 
Place, or Suspension of any such Officer by you as afore- 
said, put in any fit Person to officiate in the Intervall till 
you shall have represented the Matter unto us, and to our 
Commissioners for Trade and Plantations as aforesaid 
(which you are to do by the first opportunity) and till the 
said Office or Place be disposed of by us, our Heirs or 
Successors, under the Great Seal of England, or that our 
further Directions be given therein. 

43. In Case of any Goods, Money or other Estate of 
Pirates, or Piratically taken, shall be brought in, or found 
within our said Province of Nova-Ccesaria, or New-Jersey, 
or taken on Board any Ships or Vessels, you are to cause 
the same to be seized and secured until you shall have 
given us an Account thereof, and receive our Pleasure con- 
cerning the disposal of the same : But in case such Goods 
or any part of them are perishable, the same shall be pub- 
lickly sold and disposed of, and the produce thereof in like 
manner secured until our further Orders. 

44. And whereas Commissions have been granted unto 
several Persons in our respective Plantations in America, 
for the trying of Pirates in those Parts, pursuant to the Act 
for the more effectual Suppression of Piracy, and by a 
Commission already sent to our Province of New-York,. 
you (as Captain General and Governor in Chief of our said 
Province of New-York) are impowered, together with 
others therein mentioned, to proceed accordingly in refer- 
ence to our Provinces of New- York, New- Jersey, and Con- 
necticut ; our Will and Pleasure is, that in all Matters re- 
lating to Pirates, you Govern yourself according to the 

15 



226 APPENDIX B. 

intent of the Act and Commission aforementioned ; but 
whereas Accessories in Cases of Piracy beyond the Seas, 
are by the same Act left to be tryed in England, accord- 
ing to the Statute of the Second of King Henry the Eighth, 
We do hereby further direct and require you to send all 
such accessories in Cases of Piracy in our aforesaid Pro- 
vince of Nova-Ccesarea, or New- Jersey, with the Proper 
Evidences that you may have against them, into England, 
in order to their being tryed here. 

45. You shall not erect any Court or Office of Judica- 
ture, not before erected or established, without our espe- 
cial Order. 

46. You are to transmit unto us, and to our Commis- 
sioners for Trade and Plantations, with all convenient 
speed, a particular account of all Establishments of Juris- 
dictions, Courts, Offices, and Officers, Powers, Authorities, 
Fees, and Privileges which shall be granted or settled within 
the said Province, by Virtue, and in pursuance of our Com- 
mission and Instructions to you our Captain General and 
Governor in chief of the same, to the End you may re- 
ceive our further Directions therein. 

47. And you are with the Advice and Consent of our 
said Council, to take especial care, to regulate all Salaries 
and Fees belonging to Places, or paid upon Emergencies, 
that they may be within the Bounds of Moderation, and 
that no Exaction be made on any Occasion whatsoever ; 
as also that Tables of all Fees be publickly hung up in all 
Places where such Fees are to be paid ; and you are to 
transmit. Copies of all such Tables of Fees to us, and to our 
Commissioners for Trade and Plantations as aforesaid. 



APPENDIX B. 



227 



48. Whereas it is necessary that our Rights and Dues 
be preserved and recovered, and that speedy and effectual 
Justice be administered in all Cases relating to our Reve- 
nue, you are to take Care that a Court of Exchequer be 
called and do meet at all such Times as shall be needful], 
and you are to inform us and our Commissioners for Trade 
and Plantations, whether our Service may require, that a 
constant Court of Exchequer be settled and established 
there. 

49. You are to take Care that no Man's Life, Member, 
Freehold, or Goods be taken away or harmed in our said 
Province, otherwise then by established and known Laws, 
not repugnant to, but as much as may be agreeable to the 
Laws of England. 

50. You shall administer, or cause to be administered, 
the Oaths appointed by Act of Parliament to be taken in- 
stead of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and the 
Oath mentioned in the aforesaid Act, entitled, An Act to 
declare the Alteration in the Oath appointed to be taken, by 
the Act, entitled, An Act for the further Security of his 
Majesty's Person, and the Succession of the Crown in the 
Protestant Line and for extinguishing the hopes of the 
pretended Prince of Wales, and all other Pretenders, and 
their open and Secret Abettors, and for declaring the As- 
sociation to be determined, as also the forementioned Test, 
to the Members and Officers of the Council and Assembly, 
and to all Judges, Justices, and all other Persons that hold 
any Office or Place of Trust or Profit in the said Province, 
whether by Virtue of any Patent under our Great Seal of 
England, or otherwise, without which you are not to ad- 
mit any Person whatsoever into any publick Office, nor 
suffer those who have been admitted formerly to continue 
therein. 



228 APPENDIX B. 

51. You are to permit a Liberty of Conscience to all 
Persons (except Papists) so they may be contented with a 
quiet and peaceable Enjoyment of the same, not giving 
Offence or Scandal to the Government. 

52. And whereas we have been informed that divers 
of our good Subjects inhabiting those Parts, do make a re- 
ligious scruple of Swearing, and by Reason of their refus- 
ing to take an Oath in Courts of Justice and other Places, 
are or may be liable to many inconveniencies, our Will 
and Pleasure is, that in Order to their ease in what they 
conceive to be matter of Conscience, so far as may be con- 
sistent with good Order and Government, you take Care 
that an Act be passed in the General Assembly of our said 
Province, to the like effect as that past here in the 7th and 
8th Year of his Majesty's Reign, entitled, An Act, that the 
Solemn Affirmation and Declaration of the People called 
Quakers, shall be accepted, instead of an Oath in the usual 
form, and that the same be transmitted to us, and to our 
Commissioners for Trade and Plantations as before di- 
rected. 

53. And whereas we have been further informed, that 
in the first Settlement of the Government of our said Pro- 
vince, it may so happen that the Number of Inhabitants 
fitly qualified to serve in our Council, in the General As- 
sembly, and in other Places of Trust or Profit there, will 
be but small ; it is therefore our Will and Pleasure, that 
such of the said People called Quakers, as shall be found 
capable of any of those Places or Employments, and ac- 
cordingly be elected or appointed to serve therein, may 
upon their taking and signing the Declaration of Allegi- 
ance, to us in the form used by the same People here in 
England, together with a Solemn Declaration for true dis- 



APPENDIX B. 229 

charge of their respective Trusts, be admitted by you into 
any of the said Places or Employments. 

You shall send an Account unto us, and to our Com- 
missioners for Trade and Plantations, of the present Num- 
ber of Planters and Inhabitants, Men, Women and Chil- 
dren, as well Masters as Servants, free and unfree, and of 
the Slaves in our said Province, as also a Yearly account 
of the Increase or Decrease of them, and how many of 
them are fit to bear Arms in the Militia of our said 
Province. 

You shall also cause an Account to be kept of all Per- 
sons Born, Christened and Buried, and you shall Yearly 
send fair abstracts thereof to us, and to our Commissioners 
for Trade and Plantations as aforesaid. 

You shall take care that all Planters and Christian Ser- 
vants, be well and fitly provided with Arms, and that they 
be listed under good Officers, and when, and as often as 
shall be thought fit, Mustered and Trained, whereby they 
may be in a better readiness for the Defence of our said 
Province under your Government, and you are to endea- 
vour to get an Act past, (if not already done) for appor- 
tioning the number of white Servants to be kept by every 
Planter. 

You are to take especial care, that neither the fre- 
quency, nor unreasonableness of their Marches, Musters, 
and Trainings, be an unnecessary Impediment to the affairs 
of the Inhabitants. 

You shall not, upon any Occasion whatsoever, estab- 
lish, or put in Execution any Articles of War, or other 



230 APPENDIX B. 

Law Martial, upon any of our Subjects, Inhabitants of our 
said Province, without the Advice and consent of our 
Council there. 

And whereas there is no Power given you by your 
Commission, to execute Martial Law in Time of Peace 
upon Soldiers in pay, and that nevertheless it may be Ne- 
cessary that some care be taken for the keeping of good 
Discipline amongst those, that we may at any Time think 
fit to send into our said Province, (which may properly be 
provided for by the Legislative Power of the same) you are 
therefore to recommend to the General Assembly of our 
said Province, that they prepare such Act or Law for the 
Punishing of Mutiny, Desertion, and false Musters, and for 
the better preserving of good discipline amongst the said 
Soldiers, as may best answer those Ends. 

And whereas upon Complaints that have been made of 
the irregular Proceedings of the Captains of some of our 
Ships of War, in the pressing of Seamen in several of our 
Plantations, we have thought fit to order, and have given 
Directions to our High Admiral accordingly, that when 
any Captain or Commander of any of our Ships of War, in 
any of our said Plantations, shall have Occasion for Sea- 
men to serve on board of Ships under their Command, 
they do make their Applications to the Governors, and 
Commanders in Chief, of our Plantations respectively, to 
whom, as Vice Admirals, we are pleased to commit the sole 
Power of impressing Seamen in any of our Plantations in 
America, or in sight of any of them ; you are therefore 
hereby required upon such Application made to you, by 
any of the Commanders of our said Ships of War within 
our Province of Nova-Ccesarea, or New- Jersey, to take 
care that our said Ships of War be furnished with a num- 



APPENDIX B. 



231 



oer of Seamen that may be necessary for our Service on 
board them from Time to Time. 

And whereas together with other Powers of Vice Ad- 
miralty, you will receive Authority from our dearest Hus- 
band Prince George of Denmark, our High Admiral of 
England, and of our Plantations, upon the Refusal or Ne- 
glect of any Captain or Commander of any of our Ships of 
War, to execute the written Orders he shall receive from 
you for our Service, and the Service of our Province un- 
der your Government, or upon his negligent, or undue exe- 
cution thereof, to suspend him, such Captain or Command- 
er from the Exercise of his said Office of Captain or Com- 
mander, and to commit him into safe Custody, either on 
board his own Ship or elsewhere, at your Discretion, in or- 
der to his being brought to answer for such Refusal or Ne- 
glect, by Commission either under our Great Seal of Eng- 
land, or from our High Admiral, or our Commissioners for 
executing the Office of our High Admiral of England for 
the Time being. 

And whereas you will likewise receive Directions from 
our said Dearest Husband, as our High Admiral of Eng- 
land, and of our Plantations, that the Captain or Command- 
er, so by you suspended, shall during such his Suspension 
and Commitment be succeeded in his said Office by such 
Commission or Warrant Officer of our said Ship, appointed 
by our said High Admiral of England, or by our Commis- 
sioners for executing the Office of our High Admiral of 
England for the Time being, as by that known Practice 
and Discipline of our Navy, does and ought to succeed him 
next as in case of Death, Sickness, or other ordinary disa- 
bility happening to the Commander of any of our Ships of 
War and not otherwise ; you standing also accountable for 



232 APPENDIX B. 

the Truth and Importance of the Crime and Misdemea- 
nour, for which you shall so proceed to the suspending of 
such our Captain or Commander ; you are not to exercise 
the said Power of suspending any such Captains or Com- 
manders of our Ships of War, otherwise then by virtue of 
such Commission or Authority from our said High Admi- 
ral ; any former Custom or Usage notwithstanding. 

Whereas it is absolutely necessary, that we be exactly 
informed of the State of Defence of all our Plantations in 
America, as well in relation to the Stores of War, that are 
in each Plantation, as to the Forts and Fortifications there, 
and what more may be necessary to be built for the De- 
fence and Security of the same, you are so soon as possible 
to prepare an Account thereof, with relation to our said 
Province of Nova-Casarea, or New- Jersey, in the most 
particular manner ; and you are therein to express the pre- 
sent state of the Arms, Ammunition and other Stores of 
War, either in any publick Magazines, or in the Hands of 
private Persons, together with the state of all Places either 
already fortified, or that you judge necessary to be fortified 
for the Security of our said Province ; and you are to 
transmit the said Account to us, and to our Commissioners 
for Trade and Plantations by the first opportunity, and 
other like Accounts Yearly in the same Manner. 

And that we may be the better informed of the Trade 
of our said Province, you are to take especial care that due 
Entries be made in all Ports in our said Province, of all 
Goods and Commodities, their Species or Quantities Im- 
ported or Exported from thence, with the Names, Burden, 
and Guns of all Ships importing and exporting the same, 
also the Names of their Commanders, and likwise express- 
ing from and to what Places the said Ships do come and 



APPENDIX B. 



233 



go, a Copy whereof the Naval Officer is to furnish you 
with, and you are to transmit the same unto us, our High 
Treasurer or our Commissioners of our Treasury for the 
Time being, and to our Commissioners for Trade and Plan- 
tations Quarterly, and Duplicates thereof by the next con- 
veyance. 

And whereas great losses have been sustained by our 
Subjects, Trading to our Plantations in America, by Ships 
sailing from those Parts without Convoy, or without the 
Company of other Ships, which might protect them from 
our Enemies, by which means many of them have been 
taken by the French in their return to England ; to the 
end therefore the Ships of our Subjects may be the better 
secured in their return home, you are to take care that dur- 
ing this Time of War, no Ships Trading to our Province 
of Nova-Ccesarea, or New- Jersey, be permitted to come 
from thence to England, but in Fleets, or under Convoy 
or Protection of some of our Ships of War, or at such a 
Time as you shall receive Notice from hence, of their 
meeting such Convoys, as may be appointed for the bring- 
ing them safe to some of our Ports in this Kingdom ; and 
in case of any Danger, you are to expect Directions from 
hence, what Precautions shall be further necessary for their 
Security. 

You are likewise to examine what Rates and Duties 
are charged and payable upon any Goods Imported or Ex- 
ported within our Province of Nova-Ccesarea, or New- 
Jersey, whether of the Growth or Manufacture of the said 
Province or otherwise, and to use your best endeavours 
for the Improvement of the Trade in those Parts. 

And whereas Orders have been given for the Commis- 
sionating of fit Persons to be Officers of our Admiralty 



234 APPENDIX B. 

and Customs in our several Plantations in America ; and it 
is of great importance to the Trade of this Kingdom, and 
to the Welfare of all our Plantations, that illegal Trade be 
every where discouraged. You are therefore to take espe- 
cial care, that the Acts of Trade and Navigation be duly 
put in Execution ; and in Order thereunto, you are to give 
constant Protection and all due Encouragement to the said 
Officers of our Admiralty and Customs, in the Execution 
of their respective Offices and Trust within our Territo- 
ries under your Government. 

You are from Time to Time to give an Account as be- 
fore directed, what Strength your bordering Neighbours 
have, be they Indians or others, by Sea and Land, and of 
the Condition of their Plantations, and what Correspond- 
ence you do keep with them. 

You shall take especial care, that God Almighty be de- 
voutly and duly served throughout your Government, the 
Book of Common Prayer as by Law established read each 
Sunday, and Holy-day, and the Blessed Sacrament admin- 
istered according to the Rights of the Church of England. 

You shall be careful that the Churches already built 
there, be well and orderly kept, and that more be built, as 
the Colony shall by God's blessing be improved ; and that 
besides a competent maintainance to be assigned to the 
Minister of each Orthodox Church, a convenient House be 
built at the common Charge for each Minister, and a com- 
petent Proportion of Land, assigned to him, for a Glebe 
and exercise of his industry. 

And you are to take care, that the Parishes be so limit- 
ted and settled, as you shall find most convenient, for the 
accomplishing this good Work. 



APPENDIX B. 



235 



You are not to prefer any Minister to any ecclesiastical 
Benefice in that our Province, without a Certificate from 
the Right Reverend Father in God the Loed Bishop of 
London, of his being conformable to the Doctrine and Dis- 
cipline of the Church of England, and of a good Life and 
Conversation : And if any Person already preferr'd to a 
Benefice shall appear to you, to give scandal either by his 
Doctrine or Manners, you are to use the best means for the 
Removal of him, and to supply the Vacancy in such man- 
ner as we have directed. 

You are to give Order, that every Orthodox Minister 
within your Government, be one of the Vestry in his re- 
spective Parish, and that no Vestry be held without him, 
except in case of Sickness, or that after the Notice of a 
Vestry summon'd, he omit to come. 

You are to enquire whether there be any Minister 
within your Government, who preaches and administers the 
Sacrament in any Orthodox Church or Chappel, without 
being in due Orders, and to give account thereof to the 
said Lord Bishop of London. 

And to the End the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the 
said Lord Bishop of London, may take Place in our said 
Province, so far as conveniently may be, we do think fit 
that you give all Countenance and encouragement to the 
Exercise of the same, excepting only the collating to Bene- 
fices, granting Licences for Marriages, and Probate of 
Wills, which we have reserved to you our Governor, and 
the Commander in Chief of said Province for the Time 
being. 

And you are to take especial Care that a Table of Mar- 
riages established by the Canons of the Church of Eng- 



236 APPENDIX B. 

land, be hung up in every Orthodox Church, and duly ob- 
served, and you are to endeavour to get a Law passed in 
the Assembly of our said Province, (if not already done,) 
for the strict Observation of the said Table. 

You are to take care that Drunkenness and Debauche- 
ry, Swearing and Blasphemy, be discountenanced and pun- 
ished : And for the further discountenance of Vice, and 
Encouragement of Virtue and good living, (that by such 
example the Infidels may be invited and Desire to partake 
of the Christian Religion) you are not to admit any Person 
to publick Trusts and Employments in our said Province, 
under your Government, whose ill Fame and Conversation 
may occasion Scandal. 

You are to suppress the engrossing of Commodities as 
tending to the prejudice of that freedom which Commerce 
and Trade ought to have, and to settle such Orders and 
Regulations therein, with the Advice of the Council, as 
may be most conducive to the Benefit and Improvement of 
that Colony. 

You are to give all due Encouragement and Invitation 
to Merchants and others, who shall bring Trade unto our 
said Province, or any way contribute to the advantage 
thereof, and in particular the Royal African Company of 
England. 

And whereas we are willing to recommend unto the 
said Company, that the said Province may have a constant 
and sufficient supply of Merchantable Negroes, at moderate 
Rates, in Money or Commodities, so you are to take espe- 
cial Care, that Payment be duly made, and within a com- 
petent time according to their Agreements. 



APPENDIX B. 



237 



And you are to take care that there be no trading from 
our said Province to any Place in Africa, within the Char- 
ter of the Royal African Company, otherwise than pre- 
scribed by an Act of Parliament, entitled, An Act to settle 
the Trade to Africa. 

And you are Yearly to give unto us, and to our Com- 
missioners for Trade and Plantations, an Account of what 
Number of Negroes, our said Province is yearly supplyed 
with, and at what Rates. 

You are likewise from Time to Time, to give unto us, 
and to our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations as 
aforesaid, an account of the Want and Defects of our said 
Province, what are the chief Products thereof, what new 
Improvements are made therein by the Industry of the In- 
habitants or Planters, and what further Improvements you 
conceive may be made, or Advantages gained by Trade, 
and in what manner we may best advance the same. 

You are not to grant Commissions of Marque or Re- 
prizals, against any Prince or State, or their Subjects in 
Amity with us, to any Person whatsoever without our es- 
pecial Command. 

Our Will and Pleasure is, that Appeals be made in 
Cases of Error from the Courts in our said Province of 
Nova-Casarea, or New- Jersey, unto you and the Council 
there ; and in your absence from our said Province, to our 
Commander in Chief for the Time being, and our said 
Council, in civil Causes, wherein such of our said Council 
as shall be at that Time Judges of the Court from whence 
such Appeal shall be made to you our Governor, and Coun- 
cil, or to the Commander in Chief for the Time being, and 



238 APPENDIX B. 

Council as aforesaid, shall not be admitted to vote upon 
the said Appeal, but they may nevertheless be present at 
the hearing thereof, to give the Reasons of the Judgment 
given by them, in the. Cause wherein such Appeal shall be 
made. PROVIDED NEVERTHELESS, that in all 
such Appeals, the Sum or Value appealed for exceed one 
Hundred Pounds Sterling, and that Security be first duly 
given by the Appellant to Answer such Charges as shall be 
awarded in Case the first Sentence be affirmed. 

And if either Party shall not rest satisfyed with the 
Judgment of you, or the Commander in Chief for the Time 
being, and Council as aforesaid, Our Will and Pleasure is, 
that they may then appeal unto us, in our privy Council, 
provided the Sum or Value so appealed for unto us, do ex- 
ceed two Hundred Pounds Sterling, and that such Appeal 
be made within Fourteen Days after Sentence ; and that 
good Security be given by the Appellant, that he will ef- 
fectually prosecute the same, and answer the Condemna- 
tion, as also pay such Costs and Damages as shall be 
awarded by us, in case the Sentence of you, or the Com- 
mander in Chief for the Time being, and Council, be af- 
firmed. And Provided also, that Execution be not sus- 
pended by reason of any such Appeal to us. 

You are also to permit Appeals to us in Council, in all 
Cases of Fines imposed for Misdemeanours ; provided the 
Fines so imposed, amount to or exceed the value of two 
Hundred Pounds, the Appeallant first giving good Se- 
curity, that he will effectually Prosecute the same, and An- 
swer the Condemnation, if the Sentence by which such 
Fine was imposed in our said Province of Nova-Ccesarea, 
or New-Jersey, shall be confirmed.- 



APPENDIX B. 039 

You are for the better Administration of Justice, to en- 
deavour to get a Law passed (if not already done) wherein 
shall be set the value of Men's Estates, either in Goods or 
Lands, under which they shall not be capable of serving as 
Jurors. 

You shall endeavour to get a Law past for the restrain- 
ing of any inhuman Severity, which by ill Masters or 
Overseers, may be used towards their Christian Servants, 
and their Slaves, and that Provision be made therein, that 
the wilfull killing of Indians and Negroes may be punished 
with Death, and that a fit Penalty be imposed for the 
maiming of them. 

You are also with the Assistance of the Council and 
Assembly, to find out the best means to facilitate and en- 
courage the Conversion of Negroes and Indians, to the 
Christian Religion. 

You are to endeavour with the Assistance of the Coun- 
cil, to provide for the raising of Stocks, and building of 
publick Work-houses, in convenient Places, for the em- 
ploying of poor and indigent people. 

You are to propose an Act to be past in the Assembly, 
whereby the Creditors of Persons becoming Bankrupts in 
England, and having Estates in our aforesaid Province of 
New-Jersey, may be relieved and satisfied for the Debts 
owing them. 

You are to encourage the Indians upon all Occasions 
so as they may apply themselves to the English Trade and 
Nation, rather than to any other of Europe. 



240 APPENDIX B. 

And whereas the preservation of the Northern Fron- 
tiers of our Province of New-York, against the Attempts 
of any Enemy by Land, is of great Importance to the Se- 
curity of our Northern Plantations on the Continent of 
America, and more especially of our said Province of New- 
Jersey, which lyes so near adjoining to our Province of 
New-York; and the charge of erecting and repairing the 
Fortifications, and of maintaining the soldiers necessary 
for the defence of the same, as too great to be borne by the 
single Province of New-York, without due Contributions 
from others concerned therein, for which reason, we have 
upon several Occasions, required such Contributions to be 
made, and accordingly settled a quota to regulate the Pro- 
portions thereof; you are therefore to take further Care, to 
dispose the General Assembly of our said Province of New- 
Jersey, to the raising of such other Supplies, as are or may 
be necessary for the Defence of our Province of New-York, 
according to the Signification of our Will and Pleasure 
therein, which has already been made to the Inhabitants of 
New-Jersey, or which shall at any Time hereafter be made 
to you our Governor, or to the Commander in Chief of our 
said Province for the Time being. 



And in Case of any Distress of any of our Plantations, 
you shall upon Application of the respective Governors to 
you, assist them with what aid the condition and safety of 
your Government will permit, and more particularly in 
case our Province of New-York, be at any Time attacked 
by an Enemy, the Assistance you are to contribute to- 
wards the defence thereof, whether in Men or Money is 
according to the forementioned Quota or Repartition 
which has already been signified to the Inhabitants of our 
foresaid Province under your Government, or according to 



APPENDIX B. 241 

such other Regulation as we shall hereafter make in that 
behalf, and signify to you or the Commander in Chief of our 
said Province, for the Time being. 

And for the greater Security of our Province of New- 
Jersey, you are to appoint fit Officers and Commanders, in 
the several Parts of the Country bordering upon the In- 
dians, who upon any Invasion may raise Men and Arms 
to oppose them, until they shall receive your Directions 
therein. 

And whereas we have been pleased by our Commis- 
sion to direct, that in case of your Death or Absence 
from our said Province, and in case there be at that Time 
no Person upon the Place commissionated or appointed 
by us to be our Lieutenant Governor, or Commander in 
Chief, the then present Council of our said Province, shall 
take upon them the Administration of the Government, 
and execute our said Commission, and the several Powers 
and Authorities therein contained in the manner therein 
directed ; it is nevertheless our express Will and Pleasure, 
that in such case the said Council shall forbear to pass any 
Acts, but what are immediately necessary for the Peace 
and Welfare of our said Province, without our particular 
Order for that Purpose. 

You are to take care that all Writs be issued in our 
Name throughout our said Province. 

Forasmuch as great Inconveniencies may arise by the 
Liberty of Printing in our said Province, you are to pro- 
vide by all necessary Orders, that no Person keep any 
Press for printing, nor that any Book, Pamphlet or other 
16 



242 APPENDIX B. 

Matters whatsoever be printed without your especial 
Leave and Licence first obtained. 

And if any thing shall happen that may be of advan- 
tage and security to our said Province, which is not herein, 
or by our Commission to you provided for, we do hereby 
allow unto you, with the Advice and Consent of our Coun- 
cil of our said Province, to take order for the present there- 
in, giving unto us by one of our Principal Secretaries of 
State, and to our Commissioners for Trade and Planta- 
tions, speedy Notice thereof, that so you may receive our 
Ratification if we shall approve of the same. 

PROVIDED ALWAYS, that you do not by any co- 
lour of any Power or Authority hereby given you, Com- 
mence or Declare War, without our Knowledge and parti- 
cular Commands therein, except it be against Indians, upon 
emergencies, wherein the consent of our Council shall be 
had, and speedy Notice given thereof unto us as aforesaid. 

And you are upon all occasions to send unto us by one 
of our principal Secretaries of State, and to our Commis- 
sioners for Trade and Plantations, a particular account of 
all your Proceedings and of the Condition of Affairs within 
your Government. 

And whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Par- 
liament, upon Consideration of the great abuses practised in 
the Plantation Trade, did by an humble Address represent to 
his late Majesty, the great Importance it is of both to this 
our Kingdom and to our Plantations in America, that the 
many good Laws which have been made for the Govern- 
ment of the said Plantations, and particularly the Act pass- 
ed in the seventh and eighth Years of his said Majesty's 



APPENDIX B. 243 

Reign, entitled, An Act for preventing Frauds, and regu- 
lating abuses in the Plantation Trade, be strictly observed. 
You are therefore to take Notice, that whereas notwith- 
standing the many good Laws made from Time to Time, 
for preventing Frauds in the Plantation Trade, it is never- 
theless manifest, that very great Abuses have been and 
continue still to be practised to the prejudice of the same ; 
which abuses must needs arise, either from the Insolvency 
of the Persons who are accepted for the Security, or from 
the Remissness or Connivance of such as have been or are 
Governors in the Several Plantations, who ought to take 
care that those Persons who give Bond should be duly 
prosecuted, in case of non performance ; we take the good 
of our Plantations and the Improvement of the Trade 
thereof, by a strict and punctual observance of the several 
Laws in force concerning the same, to be of so great Im- 
portance to the Benefit of this our Kingdom, and to the 
advancing of the Duties of our Customs here, that if we 
shall be hereafter informed, that at any Time there shall 
be any failure in the due observance of those Laws, within 
our foresaid Province of Nova-Casarea, or New- Jersey, 
by any willful fault or neglect on your Part, we shall look 
upon it as Breach of the Trust reposed in you by us, 
which we shall punish with the loss of your Place in that 
Government, and such further Marks of our Displeasure, 
as we shall Judge reasonable to be inflicted upon you, for 
your Offence against us, in a Matter of this consequence 
that we now so particularly charge you with. 
A True Copy. 

Thomas Hill, Secretary. 



244 APPENDIX B. 



LORD CORNBURY'S COMMISSION. 

ANNE by the Grace of God of England, Scotland, 
France and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, &c. 
To our Trusty and well reloved, Edward Hyde, Esquire, 
commonly called Lord Cornbury, Greeting. _ Whereas in 
the Government of that Country, which was formerly 
granted by King Charles the Second, under the Name of 
Nova-Casarea, or New- Jersey, and which has since been 
subdivided by the Proprietors and called East New-Jersey, 
and West New Jersey, such Miscarriages have happened 
that the said Country is fallen into disorder and confusion, 
which has accordingly been represented to our dearest 
Brother the late King in several Petitions, Memorials and 
other Papers signed by the General Proprietors and by 
great numbers of the Inhabitants ; and by means of that 
disorder the publick Peace and Administration of Justice, 
whereby the Properties of our Subjects should be pre- 
served there, is interrupted and violated, and the Guard 
and Defence of that Country so totally neglected, that the 
same is in eminent danger of being lost from the Crown of 
England : And whereas the aforesaid Proprietors being 
sensible that the said Country and our good Subjects the 
Inhabitants thereof cannot be defended and secured by any- 
other means then by our taking the Government of the 
same under our immediate Care, have executed and made 
a formal and entire Surrender of their Right or pretended 
Right and Title to the Government of that Country unto 
us, we therefore reposing especial trust and confidence in 
the Prudence, Courage and Loyalty of you the said Lord 
Cornbury, out of our especial Grace, certain Knowledge 
and mere Motion, have thought fit to constitute and ap- 



APPENDIX B. 



245 



point, and by these Presents do constitute and appoint you 
the said Lord Cornbury, to be our Captain General and 
Governor in Chief, in and over the aforesaid Country of 
Nova-CcBsarea, or New- Jersey, viz. the Division of East 
and West New-Jersey, in America, which we have thought 
fit to reunite into one Province, and settle under one en- 
tire Government : And we do hereby require and com- 
mand you to do and execute all Things in due manner that 
shall belong unto your said Command, and the trust we 
have reposed in you, according to the several Powers and 
Directions granted or appointed you by this present Com- 
mission, and the Instructions and Authorities herewith 
given you, or by such further Powers, Instructions or Au- 
thorities as shall at any Time hereafter be granted, or ap- 
pointed you under our Signet and Sign Manual, or by our 
Order in our privy Council, and according to such reason- 
able Laws and Statutes as shall be made and agreed upon 
by you, with the advice and consent of the Council and 
Assembly of our said Province, under your Government, 
in such manner and form as is hereafter expressed. And 
our Will and Pleasure is, that you the said Lord Cornbury, 
having, after the Proclamation of these our Letters Patents, 
first taken the Oaths appointed by Act of Parliament to be 
taken instead of the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, 
and the Oath mentioned in an Act, entitled, An Act to de- 
clare the Alteration in the Oath appointed to be taken, by 
the Act, entitled, An Act for the further Security of his 
Majesty's Person, and the Succession of the Crown in the 
Protestant Line, and for the extinguishing the hopes of the 
Pretended Prince of Wales, and all other Pretenders and 
their open and secret Abettors, and for the declaring the 
Association to be determined. As also the Test mentioned 
in the Act of Parliament made in the Twenty-fifth Year of 



246 APPENDIX B. 

the Reign of King Charles the Second, entitled, An Act 
for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish 
Recusants, together with the Oath for the due Execution 
of the Office and Trust of our Captain General and Gov- 
ernor in Chief, in and over our said Province of Nova- 
CcBsarea, or New- Jersey, as well with regard to the equal 
and impartial Administration of Justice, in all Causes that 
shall come before you, as otherwise, and likewise the Oath 
required to be taken by Governors of Plantations, to do the 
utmost that the Laws relating to the Plantations be observ- 
ed ; all which our Council in our said Province, or any 
three of the Members thereof, have hereby full Power and 
Authority, and are required to administer unto you, and in 
your absence our Lieutenant Governor, if there be any 
upon the Place : you shall administer unto each of the 
Members of our said Council, as also to our Lieutenant 
Governor, if there be any upon the Place, as well the 
Oath appointed by the Act of Parliament to be taken in- 
stead of the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, and the 
Oath mentioned in the said Act, entitled, An Act to declare 
the Alteration in the Oath appointed to be taken by an Act, 
entitled, An Act for the further Security of his Majesty's 
Person, and the Succession of the Crown in the Protestant 
Line, and for exthiguishing the hopes of the pretended 
Prince of Wales, and all other Pretenders, and their open 
and Secret Abettors, and for declaring the Association to 
be determined; as the forementioned Test, and the Oath 
for the due execution of their Places and Trusts. And we 
do hereby give and grant unto you, full Power and Autho- 
rity to suspend any of the Members of our said Council 
from sitting, voting, and assisting therein, if you shall see 
just cause for so doing : And if it shall at any Time hap- 
pen that by the Death, Departure out of our said Province, 



APPENDIX B. 



24? 



or Suspension of any of our said Councillors, or other- 
wise, there shall be wanting in our said Council, any three 
whereof we do appoint to be a Quorum, Our Will and 
Pleasure is, that you signify the same unto us, by the first 
opportunity, that we may under our Signet and Sign Ma- 
nual constitute and appoint others in their stead ; but that 
our affairs may not suffer at that instant, for want of 
a due Number of Councillors, if ever it should happen 
that there should be less than seven of them residing in our 
said Province, we do hereby give and grant unto you the 
said Lord Cornbury, full Power and Authority to chuse 
as many Persons out of the Principal Freeholders, Inhabit- 
ants thereof, as will make up the full number of our said 
Council to be seven, and no more, which persons so chosen 
and appointed by you, shall be to all Intents and Purposes 
Councillors in our said Province, until either they shall be 
confirmed by us, or that by the Nomination of others by 
us, under our Sign Manual and Signet, our said Council 
shall have seven or more Persons in it. And we do here- 
by give and grant unto you, full Power and Authority, 
with the advice and consent of our said Council from Time 
to Time, as need shall require, to summon and call Gen- 
eral Assemblies of the Freeholders and Planters within 
your Government, in manner and form as shall be directed 
in our Instructions which shall be given you, together with 
this our Commission. Our Will and Pleasure is, that the 
Persons thereupon duly elected, by the Major part of the 
Freeholders of the respective Counties and Places so re- 
turned, and having before sitting, taken the Oaths appoint- 
ed by Act of Parliament to be taken instead of the Oaths 
of Allegiance and Supremacy, and the Oath mentioned in 
the aforesaid Act, entitled, An Act to declare the Alteration 
in the Oath appointed to be taken by the Act, entitled, An 



248 APPENDIX B. 

Act for the further Security of his Majesty's Person, 
and the Succession of the Crown in the Protestant Line, 
and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of 
Wales, and all other Pretenders, and their open and secret 
Abettors, and for declaring the Association to be determin- 
ed ; as also the aforementioned Test: Which Oath you 
shall commissionate fit Persons under our Seal of Nova- 
Ccesarea, or New-Jersey, to administer unto them, and 
without taking of which Oaths and subscribing the said 
Test, none shall be capable of sitting though elected, shall 
be called and held the General Assembly of that our Pro- 
vince, and that you the said Lord Cornbury, by and with 
the Advice and Consent of our Council and Assembly, or 
the Major part of them respectively, shall have full Power 
and Authority to make, constitute, and ordain Laws, Sta- 
tutes and Ordinances, for the publick Peace, Welfare, and 
good Government of our said Province, and of the People 
and Inhabitants thereof, and such others as shall report 
thereto, and for the Benefit of us, our Heirs, and Succes- 
sors, which said Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances are not to 
be repugnant, but as near as may be agreeable unto the 
Laws and Statutes of this our Kingdom of England. Pro- 
vided that all such Laws, Statutes and Ordinances of what 
nature or duration soever, be within three Months or soon- 
er, after the making thereof, transmitted to us, under our 
Seal of Nova-Caisarea, or New- Jersey, for our Approba- 
tion or Disallowance of them, as also Duplicates thereof 
by the next conveyance, or in case any or all of them be- 
ing not before confirmed by us, shall at any Time be disal- 
lowed and not approved, and so signified by us, our Heirs 
or Successors, under our or their Sign Manual and Signet, 
or by Order of our or their privy Council, unto you the 
said Lord Cornbury, or to the Commander in Chief of our 



APPENDIX B. 



249 



said Province for the Time being, then such and so many 
of them as shall be disallowed and not approved shall from 
thenceforth cease, determine, and become utterly void and 
of none effect, any Thing to the contrary thereof notwith- 
standing. And to the end that nothing may be passed or 
done by our said Council or Assembly, to the prejudice of 
our Heirs and Successors, we will and ordain, that you the 
said Lord Cornbury, shall have and enjoy a Negative 
Power in the making and passing of all Laws, Statutes and 
Ordinances as aforesaid. And that you shall and may like- 
wise from Time to Time, as you shall judge it necessary, 
adjourn, prorogue and dissolve all General Assemblies. 
Our Will and Pleasure is, that you shall and may use and 
keep the publick Seal of our Province of Nova-Ccesarea, 
or New-Jersey, for Sealing all Things whatsoever that pass 
the Great Seal of our said Province under your Govern- 
ment. And we do further give and grant unto you the 
said Lord Cornbury, full Power and Authority, from Time 
to Time, and at all Times hereafter, by yourself, or by any 
other to be authorized by you in that behalf, to administer 
and give the Oaths appointed by Act of Parliament, instead 
of the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, to all and every 
such Person and Persons as you shall think fit, who shall at 
any Time or Times pass into our said Province, or shall 
be resident or abiding there. And do further give and 
grant unto you, full Power and Authority, with the advice 
and consent of our said Council, to erect, constitute and 
establish such and so many Courts of Judicature and pub- 
lick Justice within our said Province under your Govern- 
ment, as you and they shall think fit and necessary, for the 
hearing and determining of all Causes as well Criminal as 
Civil, according to Law and Equity, and for awarding 
execution thereupon with all reasonable and necessary 



250 APPENDIX B. 

Powers, Authorities, Fees and Privileges belonging unto 
them ; and also to appoint and commissionate fit Persons 
in the several Parts of your Government to administer the 
Oaths appointed by Act of Parliament to be taken instead 
of the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, and the Oath 
mentioned in the aforesaid Act, entitled, An Act to declare 
the Alteration in the Oath to be taken by the Act, entitled, 
An Act for the further Security of his Majesty's Person, 
and the Succession of the Crown in the Protestant Line, 
and for the extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince 
of Wales, and all other Pretenders, and their open and se- 
cret Abettors, and for declaring the Association to be de- 
termined ; as also the Test, unto such Persons as shall be 
obliged to take the same. And we do hereby authorize 
and empower you to constitute and appoint Judges, and in 
Cases requisite, Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, Jus- 
tices of the Peace, and other necessary Officers and Ma- 
gistrates in our said Province, for the better administration 
of Justice, and putting the Laws in Execution ; and to ad- 
minister, or cause to be administered unto them, such Oath 
or Oaths as are usually given for the due Execution and 
Perform ace of Offices and Places, and for the clearing of 
Truth in judicial Causes. And we do hereby give and 
grant unto you, full Power and Authority where you shall 
see Cause, or Judge any Offender or Offenders in Criminal 
Matters, or any fines or forfeitures due unto us, fit Objects 
of our Mercy, to pardon all such Offenders and to remit all 
such Offences, Fines and Forfeitures, Treasons and wilful 
Murder only excepted, in which case you shall likewise 
have Power upon extraordinary Occasions, to grant re- 
prises to the Offenders, until and to the Intent our Royal 
Pleasure may be known therein. And we do by these 
presents authorize and impower you to collate any Person 



APPENDIX B. 



251 



or Persons to any Churches, Chappels or other ecclesias- 
tical Benefices within our said Province, as often as any of 
them shall happen to be void. And we do hereby give and 
grant unto you the said Lord Cornbury, by your self, and by 
your Captains and Commanders, by you to be authorized, 
full Power and Authority to levy, arm, muster, command 
and employ all Persons whatsoever residing within our 
said Province of Nova-Casarea, or New- Jersey, and as 
occasion shall serve them, to Transport from one place to 
another for the resisting and withstanding of all Ene- 
mies, Pirates, and Rebels, both at Sea and Land, and to 
Transport such Forces to any of our Plantations in Ameri- 
ca, if necessity shall require, for the defence of the same 
against the Invasion and attempts of any of our Enemies, 
Pirates and Rebels, if there shall be occasion to pursue and 
prosecute in or out of the Limits of our said Province and 
Plantations, or any of them ; and if it shall please God 
them to vanquish, apprehend and take, and being taken 
either according to Law, to put to Death, or keep and pre- 
serve alive at your discretion, and to execute Martial Law, 
in time of Invasion, Insurrection or War, and to do and 
execute all and every other Thing and Things, which to 
any Captain General and Governor in Chief, doth or ought 
of right to belong. And we do hereby give and grant unto 
you full Power and Authority, by and with the Advice and 
Consent of our said Council, to erect, raise and build in 
our said Province of Nova-Caesarea, or New- Jersey, such 
and so many Forts, Platforms, Castles, Cities, Burroughs, 
Towns, and Fortifications, as you by the Advice aforesaid, 
shall judge necessary, and the same, or any of them, to for- 
tify and furnish with Ordinance, Ammunition, and all sorts 
of Arms fit and necessary for the Security and Defence of 
our said Province ; and by the advice aforesaid, the same 



252 APPENDIX B. 

or any of them again to demolish or dismantle as may be 
most convenient. And forasmuch as many Mutinies and 
Disorders may happen, by Persons shipped and employed 
at Sea during the Time of War, to the end that such as 
shall be shipped and employed at Sea during the Time of 
War, may be better governed and ordered, we do hereby 
give and grant unto you the said Lord Cornbury, full 
Power and Authority to constitute and appoint Captains, 
Lieutenants, Masters of Ships, and other Commanders and 
Officers, and to grant unto such Captains, Lieutenants, 
Masters of Ships, and other Commanders, and Officers, 
Commissions, to execute the Law Martial during the Time 
of War, and to use such Proceedings, Authorities, Correc- 
tions, Executions, upon any Offender or Offenders who shall 
be mutinous, seditious, disorderly, or any ways unruly at 
Sea, or during the Time of their abode or residence in any 
of the Ports, Harbours, or Quays of our said Province, as 
the cause shall be found to require according to Martial 
Law, during the Time of War as aforesaid. Provided, 
that nothing herein contained, shall be construed to the 
enabling you, or any by your Authority, to hold Plea or 
have any Jurisdiction of any Offence, Cause, Matter or 
Thing committed or done upon the High Sea, or within 
any of the Harbors, Rivers, or Creeks of our said Province 
under your Government, by any Captain, Commander, 
Lieutenant, Master, Officer, Sea Man, Soldier, or other 
Person whatsoever, who shall be in actual Service and Pay, 
in or aboard any of our Ships of War, or the Vessel acting 
by immediate Commission or Warrant from our High Ad- 
miral of England, under the Seal of our Admiralty, or 
from the Commissioners for executing the Office of our 
High Admiral of England for the Time being, but that 
such Captain, Commander, Lieutenant, Master, Officers, 



APPENDIX B. 



253 



Sea Men, Soldiers, and other Persons offending, shall be 
left to be proceeded against as the Merit of their Offences 
shall require, either by Commission under our great Seal of 
England, as the Statute of the Twenty-eighth of King 
Henry the Eighth directs, or by Commission from our 
High Admiral of England, or from our Commissioners for 
executing the Office of our High Admiral of England, for 
the Time being, according to the Act of Parliament passed 
in the Thirteenth Year of King Charles the Second, en- 
titled, An Act for establishing Articles and Orders, for the 
regulating and better Government of his Majesty's Navy, 
Ships of War, and Forces by Sea, and not otherwise. 
PROVIDED NEVERTHELESS that all Disorders and 
Misdemeanors committed on Shore by any Captain, Com- 
mander, Lieutenant, Master, Officer, Sea Man, Soldier, or 
any other Person whatsoever, belonging to any of our 
Ships of War, or other Vessels acting by immediate Com- 
mission, or Warrant from our High Admiral of England, 
under the Seal of our Admiralty, or from our Commission- 
ers for executing the Office of High Admiral of England, 
for the Time being, may be tryed and punished according 
to the Laws and Place where any such Disorder, Offences 
and Misdemeanours, shall be committed on Shore, not- 
withstanding such Offender be in our actual Service and 
in our pay on board any such our Ships of War or other 
Vessels, acting by immediate Commission or Warrant from 
our High Admiral, or from our Commissioners for execut- 
ing the Office of High Admiral for the Time being as 
aforesaid, so as he shall not receive any Protection for the 
delaying of Justice, for such Offences committed on Shore, 
from any pretence of his being employed in our Service at 
Sea. Our Will and Pleasure is, that all publick Money 
raised, or shall be raised by any Act hereafter to be made 



254 APPENDIX B. 

within our said Province, and issued out by Warrant from 
you, by and with the Advice and Consent of our Council, 
and disposed of by you for the Support of the Government, 
and otherwise, we do hereby give you the said Lord Corn- 
bury, full Power and Authority to order and appoint Fairs, 
Marts, and Markets, as also such and so many Ports, Har- 
bours, Cayes, Havens, and other places for the Conve- 
niency and Security of Shipping, and for the loading and 
unloading of Goods and Merchandize, as by you, with the 
advice and consent of our said Council, shall be thought fit 
and necessary. And we do hereby require and command 
all Officers and Magistrates, Civil and Military, and all 
other the Inhabitants of our said Province, to be obedient, 
aiding and assisting unto you our said Lord Cornbury, in 
the execution of this our Commission, and for the Powers 
and Authorities herein contained ; and in case of your Death 
or Absence out of our said Province, to be obedient, aid- 
ing and assisting to such Person as shall be appointed by 
us, to be our Lieutenant Governor or Commander in Chief 
of the said Province, to whom we do therefore by these 
Presents, give and grant all and singular the Privileges 
and Authorities aforesaid, to be by him executed and en- 
joyed during our Pleasure, or until your arrival within our 
said Province : And if upon your Death or Absence out 
of our said Province there be no Person upon the Place 
commissionated or appointed by us to be our Lieutenant 
Governor, or Commander in Chief of the said Province, 
our Will and Pleasure is, that the then present Council of 
our said Province, do take upon them the Administration 
of the Government, and execute this Commission, and the 
several Powers and Authorities herein contained, and that 
such Councillor who shall be at the Time of your Death 
or Absence, residing within our said Province, and nomi- 



APPENDIX B. 



255 



nated by our Instructions to you, before any other at that 
Time residing there, do preside in our said Council, with 
such Privileges and Preeminences as may be necessary 
in those circumstances, for the due and orderly carrying 
on the publick Service in the Administration of the Gov- 
ernment as aforesaid, until our Pleasure be further known, 
or until your return. LASTLY we do hereby declare, 
ordain and appoint, that you the said Lord Cornbury, shall 
and may hold, execute and enjoy the Office and Place of 
Captain General and Governor in Chief, in and over our 
Province of Nova-Ccesarea, or New- Jersey, together with 
all and singular the Powers and Authorities hereby granted 
unto you, for and during our Will and Pleasure from and 
after the Publication of this our Commission. IN WIT- 
NESS whereof we have caused these our Letters to be 
made Patent. WITNESS our self at Westminster, the 
fifth Day of December, in the first Year of our Reign. 

Per bre probate, Sigillo. Wrighte. 

The foregoing is a true Copy taken from and compared 
with the Record in the Secretary's Office, at Burlington, 
in Lib. A. A. A. of Commissions, Folio 1st. 

Examined per 

Samuel Peart, D. Secretary. 



APPENDIX C. 



By His Excellency Edward Viscount Cornbury 
Capt. General and Governour in Chief in and 
over her Majesty's Provinces of New-Jersey, 
New- York, and all the Territories and Tracts of 
Land depending thereon in America, and Vice- 
Admiral of the same, &c. An Ordinance for 
Establishing Courts of Judicature. 

Whereas Her Most Sacred Majesty, ANNE, by the 
Grace of God, Queen of England, Scotland, France, and 
Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. by her Royal Letters 
Patents, bearing date the 5th day of December, in the 
first year of her Majesty's Reign, did among other things 
therein mentioned, give and grant unto his Excellency 
Edward Viscount Cornbury, Captain General and Gover- 
nour in Chief in and over the Province of Nova-Cesarea, 
or New- Jersey, &c. full Power and Authority, with the 
Advice and Consent of her Majesty's Council of the said 
Province, to erect, constitute, and establish such and so 
many courts of Judicature and publick Justice within the 
said Province and Territories depending thereon, as his 



APPENDIX C. 257 

said Excellency & Council shall think fit and necessary, 
for the Hearing and Determining all Causes as well Crimi- 
nal as Civil, according to Law and Equity, and for awarding 
Execution thereupon, with all necessary Powers, Autho- 
rities, Fees and Priviledges belonging to them. 

His Excellency the Governour, by and with the Advice 
and Consent of her Majesty's Council, and by virtue of 
the Powers and Authorities derived unto him by her said 
Majesty's Letters Patents, doth by. these Presents Ordain, 
and it is hereby Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, 
That every Justice of the Peace that resides within any 
Town or County within this Province, is by these Pres- 
ents fully impowered and authorized to have Cognizance 
of all Causes or Cases of Debt and Trespass to the value 
of Forty Shillings, or under ; which Causes or Cases of 
Debt and Trespasses, to the value of Forty Shillings, or 
under, shall and may be Heard, Try'd and finally Deter- 
mined without a Jury, by every Justice of the Peace 
residing, as aforesaid. 

The Process of Warning against a Free-Holder or In- 
habitant shall be by Summons, under the Hand of the 
Justice, directed to the Constable of the Town or Precinct, 
or to any deputed by him, where the party complained 
against does live or reside ; which Summons being per- 
sonally served or left at the Defendant's House or place of 
his Abode, four days before the hearing of the Plaint, shall 
be sufficient Authority to and for the said Justice to pro- 
ceed to hear such Cause or Causes, and Determine the 
same in the Defendants absence, and to grant Execution 
thereupon against the Defendants Person, or for want 
thereof, his Goods and Chattels, which the Constable, or his 
Deputy, of that Town or Precinct shall and may serve, 
17 



258 APPENDIX C. 

unless some reasonable excuse for the Parties absence 
appear to the Justice. 

And the Process against an 'Itinerant Person, Inmate or 
Foreigner, shall be by Warrant from any one Justice of 
the Peace, to be served by any Constable, or his Deputy 
within that County, who shall by virtue thereof, arrest the 
Party, and him safely keep till he be carried before the said 
Justice of the Peace, who shall and may immediately hear, 
try, & finally determine, all such Causes and Cases of Debt 
and Trespass, to the value of Forty Shillings, or under, by 
awarding Judgment and Execution ; and if payment be 
not immediately made, the Constable is to deliver the Party 
to the Sheriff, who is hereby required to take him into 
Custody, and him safely keep till payment be made of the 
same, with Charges ; Always Provided, That an Appeal to 
the Justices at the next Court of Sessions held for the said 
County, shall be allowed for any sum upwards of Twenty 
Shillings. 

And his said Excellency, by the advice and consent 
aforesaid, doth by these Presents further Ordain, That 
there shall be kept and holden a Court of Common Pleas 
in each respective County within this Province, which 
shall be holden in each County at such place where the 
General Court of Sessions is usually held and kept, to begin 
immediately after the Sessions of the Peace does end and 
terminate, and then to hold and continue as long as there 
is any business, not exceeding three days. 

And the several and respective Courts of Pleas hereby 
established, shall have Power & Jurisdiction to hear, try, 
and finally determine all Actions or Causes of Action, and 
all Matters and Things Tryable at Common Law, of what 
nature or kind soever. Provided always, and it is hereby 
Ordained, That there may, and shall be an Appeal or 



APPENDIX C. 



259 



Removal by Habeas Corpus, or any other lawful Writ, of 
any Person or of any Action or Suit depending, and 
of Judgment or Execution that shall be determined in the 
said respective Courts of Pleas, upwards of Ten Pounds, 
and of any Action or Suit wherein the Right or Title of, in 
or to any Land, or anything relating thereto, shall be 
brought into Dispute or upon Tryal. 

And it is further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, 
That the General Sessions of the Peace shall be held in 
each respective County within this Province at the Times 
and places hereafter mentioned, that is to say, 

For the County of Middlesex, at Amboy the third 
Tuesdays in February, May and August ; and the fourth 
Tuesday in November. 

For the County of Bergen, at Bergen, the first Tuesdays 
in February, May and August, and the second Tuesday 
in November. 

For the County of Essex, at Newark, the second Tues- 
days in February, May and August ; and the third Tues- 
day in November. 

For the County of Monmouth, at Shrewsbury, the fourth 
Tuesdays in February, May and August, and the first 
Tuesday in December. 

For the County of Burlington, at Burlington, the first 
Tuesdays in March, June, and September, and the second 
Tuesday in December. 

For the County of Gloucester, the second Tuesdays in 
March, June and September, and the third Tuesday in 
December. 

For the County of Salem, at Salem, the third Tuesdays 
in March, June and September, and the fourth Tuesday in 
December. 

For the County of Cape May, at the house of Shamger 



260 APPENDIX C. 

Hand, the fourth Tuesdays in March, June and September, 
and the first Tuesday in January. Which General Ses- 
sions of the Peace in each respective County aforesaid, 
shall hold and continue for any term not exceeding two 
days. 

And be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, 
That there shall be held and kept at the Cities or Towns 
of Perth- Amboy and Burlington, alternately, a Supream 
Court of Judicature, which Supream Court is hereby fully 
impowered to have Cognizance of all Pleas, civil, criminal, 
and mixt, as fully and amply, to all intents and purposes, 
whatsoever, as the Courts of Queens Bench, Common Pleas 
and Exchequer within her Majesties Kingdom of England 
have or ought to have, in and to which Supream Court all 
and every Person and Persons whatsoever shall and may, 
if they see meet, commence any Action or Suit, the Debt 
or Damage laid in such Action or Suit, being upwards of 
Ten Pounds, and shall or may by Certiorari, Habeas 
Corpus, or any other lawful Writ, remove out of any of 
the respective Courts of Sessions of the Peace or Common 
Pleas, any Information or Indictment there depending, or 
Judgment thereupon given, or to be given in any Cri- 
minal matter whatsoever, cognizable before them, or any 
of them, as also all actions, Pleas, or Suits, real, personal, 
or mixt, depending in any of the said Courts, and all Judg- 
ments thereupon given, or to be given, Provided always, 
That the Action or Suit depending, or Judgment given, 
be upwards of the value of Ten Pounds, or that the Action 
or Suit there depending or determined be concerning the 
Right or Title of any Free-hold. 

And out of the office of which Supream Court at 
Amboy and Burlington all process shall issue out, under 
the Test of the chief Justice of the said Court ; unto which 



APPENDIX C. 



261 



Office all Returns shall be made. Which Supream Court 
shall be holden at the Cities of Amboy and Burlington 
alternately, at Amboy on the first Tuesday in May, and at 
Burlington on the first Tuesday in November, annually, 
and every year ; and each Session of the said Court shall 
continue for any Term not exceeding five days. And one 
of the Justices of the said Supream Court shall once in 
every Year, if need shall so require, go the Circuit, and 
hold and keep the said Supream Court, for the County of 
Bergen, at Bergen, on the third Tuesday in April. For 
the County of Essex, at Newark, on the fourth Tuesday in 
April. For the County of Monmouth, at Shrewsbury, the 
second Tuesday in May. For the County of Gloucester, at 
Gloucester, the third Tuesday in May. For the County 
of Salem, at Salem, the fourth Tuesday in May. For the 
County of Cape May, at Shamger Hands, the first Tues- 
day in June. Which Justice, when he goes the Circuit, 
shall in each respective County be assisted by two, or more 
Justices of the Peace, during the time of two days, whilst 
the Court, in the Circuit, is sitting, and no longer. 

And it is further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, 
That all and every of the Justices or Judges of the several 
Courts afore-mentioned, be, and are hereby sufficiently 
Impowered and Authorized to make, ordain and establish 
all such Rules and Orders, for the more regular practising 
and proceeding in the said Courts, as fully and amply, to 
all intents and purposes whatsoever, as all or any of the 
Judges of the several Courts of Queens-Bench, Common- 
Pleas, and Exchequer, in England legally do. 

And it is further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid 
That no Persons Right of Property shall be, by any of the 
aforesaid Courts, Determined, except where matters of 
Fact are either acknowledged by the Parties, or Judgment 



262 APPENDIX C. 

confessed, or passeth by the Defendants fault for want of 
Plea or Answer, unless the Fact be found by Verdict of 
Twelve Men of that Neighbourhood, as it ought to be done 
by Law. 

CORNBURY. 



APPENDIX D 



An Ordinance for Establishing Courts of Judi- 
cature within the Province of New- Jersey. 

By his Excellency Robert Hunter, Esq., Captain- 
General and Governour in Chief in and over the 
Provinces of New-Jersey. New- York, and all the 
Territories arid Tracts of Land depending thereon 
in America, and Vice Admiral of the same, <$-c. in 
Council. 

His Excellency the Governour, by virtue of the Power 
and Authority to him given by her Majesties Letters 
Patents under the great Seal of Great Britain, by and 
with the Advice and Assistance of her Majesties Council 
for the said Province of Nova-Cesarea, doth hereby Ordain 
and Impower every Justice of the Peace residing within 
any Town or County within this Province of Nova- 
Cesarea to have Cognizance of all Causes and Cases of 
Debt or Trespass, to the value of Forty Shillings or under, 
all which Causes and Cases shall and may be heard, tryed 
and finally Determined, without a Jury, by any of the said 



264 APPENDIX D. 

Justices of the Peace, as aforesaid, excepting such Cases 
where Titles of Land are or may be any way concerned. 

And be it ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That the 
Process of Warning against a Free-holder or Inhabitant, 
shall be by Summons under the Hand of any of the said 
Justices of the Peace, directed to the Constable of the 
Town or Precinct, or to any deputed by him, where the 
party complained against does dwell or reside, which 
Summons shall be served upon the Person, or left at the 
House or place of abode of the Defendant, four days at 
least before the Time appointed for the hearing of the 
Plaint. And in case the Defendant does not appear at the 
Time appointed, the Justice granting such Summons may 
proceed to hear such Cause or Causes, and Determine the 
same in the Defendants absence (unless the said Justice, 
for good reason see cause to the contrary) and grant 
Execution thereupon, directed to the said Constable, or his 
Deputy, to be levyed upon the Defendants Goods and 
Chattels, or for want thereof upon the Person of the 
Defendant, which he is hereby directed, and required to 
execute accordingly. 

And be it ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That 
the Process against an Itinerant Person, Inmate or 
Foreigner, shall be by Warrant from any one Justice of the 
Peace, to be served by any Constable or his Deputy, within 
that County, who shall, by virtue thereof, arrest the Party 
and him safely keep till he be carryed before the said 
Justice, who shall and may immediately Hear, Try and 
finally Determine all such Causes and Cases of Debt and 
Trespass, as aforesaid, to the value of Forty Shillings, or 
under, by awarding Judgment and Execution. And if 
payment be not immediately made, the Constable shall 
deliver the said Party to the Sheriff of that County, who is 



APPENDIX D. 



265 



hereby required to take him into Custody, and him safely 
keep till Payment be made of the same, with Charges. 

Provided always, and it is hereby further Ordained, 
That an Appeal to the Justices of the same County at the 
next General Court of Sessions of the Peace held, shall be 
allowed for any Sum upwards of Twenty Shilings in all 
Causes and Cases whatsoever. 

And it is hereby further Ordained by the Authority 
aforesaid, That there shall be kept and holden a Court of 
Common Pleas in each respective County within this 
Province of New-Jersey aforesaid, at such places where 
the General Courts of Sessions of the Peace are usually 
held and kept, to begin immediately after, or the next Day 
after the General Sessions of the Peace ends and termi- 
nates, and then to hold and continue for any time, not 
exceeding Three Days. Which several and respective 
Courts of Common Pleas shall have power and Jurisdic- 
tion to Hear, Try, and finally Determine all Actions or 
Causes of Action, and all Matters and Things Tryable at 
Common Law, of what nature and kind soever. 

And it is hereby further Ordained by the Authority 
aforesaid, That the General Courts of Sessions of the 
Peace shall be held and kept in each respective County 
within this Province, at the Times and Places herein after- 
mentioned, That is to say, 

The first Court of Sessions to be held after the Pub- 
lication hereof, at the Times and Places to which the said 
Courts were last adjourned, and thereafter yearly and 
every year. 

For the County of Bergen, at the Town of Bergen, 
until the Court-House and Gaol, for said County be built, 
on the first Tuesdays in February and August, and the 
third Tuesdays in April and October, and thereafter at the 



266 APPENDIX D. 

Court-house of the said County on the Days and Times 
before-mentioned. 

For the County of Essex, at Newark, the second Tues- 
day of February and August ; and the fourth Tuesday in 
April and October. 

For the County of Middlesex and Somerset, at the 
Town of Perth-Amboy, the third Tuesday of February, 
May, August and November. 

For the County of Monmouth, at Shrewsberry, until the 
Court-house and Gaol for said County be built, and there- 
after at the Court-house in the said County, on the fourth 
Tuesday of February, May, August and November. 

For the County of Hunterdon, at Maidenhead, the first 
Tuesday in June and December. And at Hopewell, the 
first Tuesday in March and September, until the Court- 
house and Gaol for said County be built, and thereafter at 
the Court-house of said County only. 

For the County of Burlington, at the Town of 
Burlington, on the second Tuesday of March, June, Sep- 
tember and December. 

For the County of Gloucester, at the Town of Glouces- 
ter, on the third Tuesday in March, June, September, and 
December. 

For the County of Salem, at the Town of Salem, on the 
fourth Tuesday in March, June, September and December. 

For the County of Cape- May, at Cape-May, the first 
Tuesday in April, July, October and January. 

Which General Court of Sessions of the Peace shall 
hold and continue for any time not exceeding two Days. 

And it is hereby further ordained by the Authority 
aforesaid, That there shall be a Supream Court of Judi- 
cature held and kept at Burlington on the first Tuesday of 
May next, to which Time and Place it was left adjourned, 



APPENDIX D. 



267 



and on the first Tuesday in November. And yearly and 
every year at Burlington on the first Tuesdays of May 
and November. And yearly and every year at Perth- 
Amboy on the second Tuesday of May, and second Tues- 
day of November. 

Which Supream Court shall continue for any Term not 
exceeding five days, and is hereby fully Impowered to have 
Cognizance of all pleas Civil, Criminal and Mixt, as fully 
and amply to all intents and purposes whatsoever, as the 
Courts of Queens Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer in 
England, have or ought to have. In and to which Court 
all and every Person and Persons whatsoever, shall and 
may commence and prosecute any Action or Suit, the real 
Debt or Damages thereof being Twenty Pounds, or 
upwards, and sha!l or may by Certiorari, Habeas Corpus, 
Writ of Error, or any other lawful Writ, remove out 
of any of the said respective Courts of Sessions of the 
Peace, any Information, Presentment or Indictment there 
depending, or Judgment thereupon given, or to be given in 
any Criminal Matter whatsoever, cognizable before them, 
or any of them, as also all Actions, Pleas or Suits, Real, 
Personal, or Mixt, depending in any of the said Courts of 
Common Pleas, and all Judgments thereupon given, or to 
be given. Provided always, That the Action or Suit 
depending, or Judgment given be of the Value of Twenty 
Pounds, or upwards, or that the same be of, for or con- 
cerning the Right or Title of any Lands, Tenements and 
Hereditaments whatsoever. 

And it is hereby further Ordained and Declared by the 
Authority aforesaid, That the Office of the said Supream 
Court of Judicature shall be kept by the Clerk thereof, 
or his sufficient Deputy, at Perth- Amboy aforesaid, for the 
Eastern, and at Burlington aforesaid for the Western 



268 APPENDIX D. 

Division, under the Penalty of Deprivation, and such 
other Fines as the Law can inflict. Out of which Office 
of Perth- Amboy and Burlington aforesaid, all Process shall 
issue for each Division respectively, under the Test of the 
Chief Justice of said Province, for the time being ; and 
unto which Office all Returns shall be made respectively. 

And it is hereby further Ordained and Declared by the 
Authority aforesaid, That all and every the Justices and 
Judges of the said several Courts are sufficiently Im- 
powered and Authorized to make, order and establish such 
Rules and Orders for the more Regular Proceedings in the 
said Courts, as Justices and Judges in England may law- 
fully do, any former Ordinance or Establishment of Courts 
of Judicature to the contrary hereof in any way notwith- 
standing ; All which are from hence-forward declared to 
be Null and Void by these Presents. 

Given under my Hand and Seal in Horsumus the 17 th 

Day of April, in the Thirteenth year of her Majesties 

Reign, Annoq ; Domini 1714. 

RO. HUNTER. 



APPENDIX E. 



An Ordinance for Regulating the Courts of Judica- 
ture iu the Province of New- Jersey. 

GEORGE, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, 
France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c. 
Whereas We have thought fit, by Advice of the most Ho- 
nourable, the Lords of Our Privy Council, at Our Court at 
St. James's, on the Twentieth Day of January, in the 
Eighth Year of Our Reign, to Disallow some Laws or 
Acts of General Assembly of the Province of New-Jersey, 
made and Enacted by the Governour, Council and Repre- 
sentatives of that Province, in General Assembly, met, viz. 
One Act, Entituled, An Act for shortening of Law Suits 
and Regulating the Practice of the Law ; One other Act, 
Entituled, An Act for Acknowledging and Recording of 
Deeds and Conveyances of Land within each respective 
County of this Province ; and one other Act, Entituled, An 
Act for Enforcing the Observation of an Ordinance for 
Establishing Fees within this Province. And Whereas a 
late Ordinance for Establishing Courts of Judicature within 
the same Province, was in some measure made conforma- 



270 APPENDIX E. 

ble to one of the said Laws, so as aforesaid Disallowed. 
And whereas another Ordinance was made, bearing Date 
the Twenty-ninth Day of April, 1723, upon the Repeal of 
the said Acts, for Regulating of Courts of Judicature, 
which is found inconvenient to the Inhabitants of this Pro- 
vince, both as to the Times of the Sitting of the Courts, 
and for want of Persons authorized to take Bail in the 
Counties, and of Courts for Tryals of Causes in the Coun- 
ties, that came to issue in the Supreme Court. We have 
therefore thought Jit to Ordain, fy We do hereby Ordain, 
Direct and Impower Every Justice of the Peace residing 
within any Town or County in the Province of Nova- 
Ccesarea, or New-Jersey, to have Cognizance in all Causes 
and Cases of Debt and Trespass, of the Value of Forty 
Shillings, or under ; All which Causes and Cases shall and 
may be Heard, Tryed and finally Determined, without a 
Jury, by any of the said Justices of the Peace, as aforesaid, 
Excepting such Cases where the Titles of Land are or 
may be any wise concerned. 

AND We do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That 
the Process of Warning against Free-holders and Inhabit- 
ants shall be by Summons under the Hand of any of the 
said Justices of the Peace, directed to the Constable of the 
Town or Precinct, or to any deputed by him, where the Par- 
ty Complained against doth dwell or reside. Which Sum- 
mons shall be served upon the Person or left at the House 
or Place of Abode of the Defendant, Four Days, at least, 
before the Time appointed for the Hearing of the Plaint. 
And in case the Defendant does not appear at the time ap- 
pointed, on Affidavit made by the said Constable or his 
Deputy, That the said Summons was duly served on the 
Defendant's Person or left at the Defendant's House or 



APPENDIX E. 271 

Place of Abode, with some of the Family of the said De- 
fendant, the Justice granting such Summons may, and 
shall not otherwise, proceed to Hear such Cause or Causes, 
and Determine the same in the Defendant's Absence, and 
grant Execution thereupon, directed to any of the Consta- 
bles or Deputy Constables, to be levyed upon the Defend- 
ant's Goods and Chatties, and for want thereof upon the 
Person of the Defendant, which he is hereby Impowered 
and Directed to execute accordingly. 

And We do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That the 
Process against an Itinerant Person, Inmate or Forreigner 
shall be by Warrant from any one Justice of the Peace, 
to be served by any Constable or his Deputy within that 
County, who shall, by virtue thereof, Arrest the Party, and 
him safely keep till he shall be carried before the said Jus- 
tice, who shall and may immediately Hear, Try and finally 
Determine all such Causes and Cases of Debt and Tres- 
pass, as aforesaid, to the Value of Forty Shillings, or un- 
der, by Awarding Judgment and Execution. And if Pay- 
ment be not immediately made, the Constable shall deliver 
the said Party to the Sheriff of that County, who is hereby 
Required and Impowered to take him into Custody, and 
him safely keep until Payment be made of the same, with 
Charges. 

Provided always, and We do hereby further Ordain 
and Direct, That an Appeal shall be allowed to the Jus- 
tices of the same County at the next General Court of Ses- 
sions, of the Peace held, for any Sum upwards of Ten Shil- 
lings, in all Causes or Cases Cognizable before them. 

And Whereas We are given to understand that many 
of the Inhabitants of Our said Province live Remote from 



272 APPENDIX E. 

the Places in which We have appointed Our Supreme 
Court to be held, and that it will be of great Ease and Con- 
venience to the said Inhabitants that a Court be held in each 
County, for the Hearing, Trying and Determining of such 
Actions and Causes of Actions as shall arise within each 
of the said Counties, and Determinable by Juries of the 
same, We being willing and desirous to promote the Ease, 
Well-being and Security of all our Loving Subjects, In- 
habitants of the said Province of New-Jersey, and that 
Right and Justice may be distributed among them, and 
that all matters of Difference may be Determined by their 
Equals and Neighbours, as nigh as the present Circum- 
stances of Our said Province will admit, according to the 
good and ancient Laws and Usages of Our Kingdom of 
Great Britain, Do Ordain and Direct, That the County 
Courts for holding of Pleas, continue to be held and kept in 
each of the several and respective Counties of Our Pro- 
vince of New-Jersey, to Hear, and by the Verdict of 
Twelve Good Honest and Lawful Free-holders inhabiting 
within the said respective County where the said Court is 
held, to Try and Determine all Suits, Controversies, Quar- 
rels and Differences that may arise within the said County 
between Our Loving Subjects, for any Sum above the Va- 
lue of Forty Shillings (Causes wherein the Right or Title 
of any Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments in any wise 
concerned, Excepted,) Which said Suits, Controversies, 
Quarrels and Differences shall be Tryed and Determined 
in the said Courts by a Jury of Twelve Good and Lawful 
Free-holders, as aforesaid, and not otherwise. 

And Whereas it may so happen, that by the Craft and 
Artful Practice of the Persons concerned in the said 
Causes, Quarrel and Controversies Tryable in the said 



APPENDIX E. 



273 



County Courts for holding of Pleas, the said Causes, Quar- 
rels and Controversies may be drawn, contrary to Our 
Royal Intentions, from the Examination of the Jury, to 
the great delay and Hindrance of Justice ; and it may 
also happen, that upon Special Verdicts given in Our 
said County Courts for holding of Pleas, and upon the 
Pleadings, before and after Verdict, Matters of Law may 
arise ; We have therefore thought fit to Ordain and Direct 
That on any Special Verdict found by a Jury in any of the 
said Courts, or any Joynder in Demurrer, or Pleading be- 
fore or after Verdict, whereby any Points of Law may be 
in issue, (such Points of Law as are necessary to be De- 
termined by the Judges of the said Courts, for the Regula- 
tion and Information of the Jury, only Excepted,) That 
then and in such Case, the Clerk of any of the said County 
Courts, respectively, where the same shall happen, shall 
make up a Record of all the Pleadings or Special Verdicts, 
as the case may happen, and Transmit the same to the 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, at the next Supreme 
Court that shall sit after such Joinder in Demurrer, Plead- 
ing made or Special Verdict given, that Judgment may be 
given thereon, by the Justices of Our Supreme Court. 

And We do hereby Ordain and Direct, That the Courts 
of General Sessions of the Peace, and County Courts for 
holding of Pleas, shall be held and kept in each respective 
County within this Province, at the Times and Places 
hereafter mentioned, that is to say, The first and next 
Court of Sessions and Pleas, at the Times and Places to 
which the same Courts were respectively last Adjourned, 
and afterwards, in every year, to be Opened on the follow- 
ing Days, viz. 

For the County of Bergen, at the Court-house of the 
18 



274 APPENDIX E. 

said County on the second Monday of September, first 
Monday of December, third Monday of February, and se- 
cond Monday of May. 

For the County of Essex, at Newark, on the Thursday 
next ensuing after the second Monday of September ; the 
Thursday next ensuing after the first Monday of Decem- 
ber ; the Thursday next ensuing after the third Monday of 
February; the Thursday next ensuing after the second 
Monday of May. 

For the County of Middlesex, at the City of Perth- 
Amboy, on the third Monday of September, Second iWo?i- 
rfay of December, Fourth Monday of February, and Fourth 
Monday of iVfay. 

For the County of Sojnerset, at the Court-house of the 
same County, on the Thursday next ensuing after the 
Third Monday of September ; The Thursday next ensuing 
after the second Monday of December ; The Thursday 
next ensuing after the Fourth Monday of February ; and 
the Thursday next ensuing after the Fourth Monday of 

For the County of Monmouth, at the Court-house of the 
same County, on the first Tuesday of October, Third Twes- 
e?ay of December, First Tuesday of March, and Second 
Tuesday of Jwwe. 

For the County of Hunterdon, at the Court-house of 
the same County, the Third Monday of October, Fourth 
Monday of December, Second Monday of March, and 
Fourth Monday of July. 

For the County of Burlington, at the Town-house of 
Burlington, on the Thursday next ensuing after the Fourth 
Monday of Jw/y ; The Thursday next ensuing after the 
Third Monday of October ; The Thursday next ensuing af- 



APPENDIX E. 275 

ter the Fourth Monday of December ; and the Thursday 
next ensuing after the Second Monday of March. 

For the County of Gloucester, at Gloucester, on the Se- 
cond Monday of August, Fourth Monday of October, First 
Monday of January, and Third Monday of March. 

For the County of Salem, at Salem, on the Thursday 
next ensuing after the Second Monday of August ; The 
Thursday next ensuing after the Fourth Monday of Octo- 
ber ; The Thursday next ensuing after the First Monday 
of January ; and the Thursday next ensuing after the Third 
Monday of March. 

For the County of Cape-May, at Cape-May, the Se- 
cond Tuesday of July, the First Tuesday of November, the 
Second Tuesday of January, and the First Tuesday of 
April. And shall sit any time, not exceeding Three Days. 

.And Whereas the Times of the Sitting of Our Supreme 
Court of Our said Province of New- Jersey, are, by Experi- 
ence, found to be inconvenient, and to occasion Delay in 
the Administration of Justice, to the great Hurt of several 
of Our Loving Subjects who have Causes depending in Our 
said Supreme Court. For Remedy whereof, for the Fu- 
ture, We have thought jit to Ordain, and do hereby Ordain 
and Direct, That Our Supreme Court of Our said Province 
of New-Jersey, shall sit and be held at the Places following, 
and shall sit at and during the Times herein after men- 
tioned, That is to say, The next Supreme Court at Bur- 
lington and Amboy, at the Times unto which the said 
Courts were last, respectively, Adjourned, and afterwards 
on the First Tuesday of August at Burlington, the Fourth 
Tuesday of September at Perth- Amboy. The last Tuesday 
of March at Burlington, and the Third Tuesday of May at 
Perth-Amboy, yearly. Which Supreme Court shall Con- 
tinue for any Term not Exceeding Five Days, and is here- 



276 APPENDIX E. 

by fully impowered to have Cognizance of all Pleas, Civil, 
Criminal and Mixt, within this Province, as fully and am- 
ply, to all Intents, Constructions and Purposes whatsoever, 
as the Courts of Kings-Bench, Common-Pleas and Exche- 
quer have, or ought to have in Our Kingdom of Great Bri- 
tain. In which Court all and every Person or Persons 
whatsoever may Commence and Prosecute any Action or 
Suit, Real, Personal or Mixt, above the Value of Five 
Pounds. .And any Action, Suit or Controversie, Informa- 
tion, Indictment, or Prosecution Depending, or on which 
Judgment has been given in any of Our Inferiour Courts, 
may, by Certiorari, Habeas Corpus, Writ of Error, or 
any other Lawful Writ or Method, be Removed into Our 
said Supreme Court, from any of the Inferiour Courts 
within Our said Province. 

And we do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That the 
Office of Clerk of the said Supreme Court of Judicature 
shall be kept by himself or his sufficient Deputy, at Perth- 
Amboy in the Eastern-Division, and Burlington in the 
Western-Division. And that all Writs and Process of the 
Supreme Court for Our Province of New-Jersey, shall issue 
out of the Office in either of the said Places indifferently, 
and that the Courts at Perth-Amboy and Burlington, shall 
take Cognizance of such Writs and Process accordingly. 
Nevertheless so, that all Actions and Causes of Actions 
arising in either the Eastern or Western Division of this 
Province, are to be Tryed in, and a Verdict given by Ju- 
rors of that Division only in which the Cause of Action 
shall arise, as near and agreeable to the Laws, Customs 
and Usages in Our Kingdom of Great Britain, as may be. 

And for the greater Ease and Benefit of all our Loving 



APPENDIX E. 



277 



Subjects inhabiting withing Our Province of New-Jersey, 
and of all Persons whatsoever in taking Recognizance of 
Special Bail upon all Actions and Suits depending, or to be 
depending in Our said Supreme Court in Our said Province 
of New-Jersey. JVe do hereby Impower any two of Our 
Judges of Our Supreme Court, of which Our Chief Jus- 
tice to be always one, to grant one or more Commission or 
Commissions under the Seal of the said Supreme Court, 
from time to time, as need shall require, to impower such 
and so many Persons, as by Our said Chief Justice and 
other Judge of Our Supreme Court aforesaid, shall be 
thought fit and necessary, in all and every of the several 
Counties in our said Province of New-Jersey, to take and 
receive all and every such Recognizance or Recognizances 
of Bail or Bails, as any Person or Persons shall be willing 
and desirous to acknowledge or make before any of the 
Persons so impowered, in any Action or Suit depending, 
or hereafter to be depending in Our said Supreme Court of 
Our Province of New-Jersey, in such manner and Form, 
and by such Recognizance or Bail-Piece as the Judges of 
Our Supreme Court have here-to-fore used to take the 
same ; Which said Recognizance or Recognizances of Bail 
or Bail-Piece shall be Transmitted to some one of the 
Judges of Our Supreme Court, and by him received, upon 
payment of the usual Fees, and Affidavits made, according 
to the Directions in one Act of the Parliament in Eng- 
land, made in the fourth and fifth years of the Reign of Our 
Royal Predecessors William and Mary, King and Queen 
of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, &c, Entituled, 
An Act for taking Special Bails in the Country, upon Ac- 
tions and Suits depending in the Courts of Kings-Bench, 
Common-Pleas and Exchequer at Westminster. Which 
Act of Parliament We hereby Recommend to Our Judges 



278 APPENDIX E. 

of Our Supreme Court of Our said Province of New-Jersey, 
and to the Persons by them impowered to take and receive 
Recognizances of Special Bail, as a Direction to Govern 
themselves by, as nearly as the Circumstances of Our said 
Province of New-Jersey will admit the same to be done. 

And Whereas the bringing of Jurors and Evidences 
from the several Counties within Our Province of New- 
Jersey, will be at the great Charge and Expense of such of 
Our Loving Subjects as have Causes Depending, or that 
will be Depending in Our Supreme Court of Our said Pro- 
vince of New-Jersey, We do, for the ease and benefit of 
Our said Loving Subjects, further Ordain, That Our Chief 
Justice or other Justice of Our Supreme Court, shall annu- 
ally and every Year (if there be occasion) go into every 
County in our said Province, except the Counties of Ber- 
gen and Cape-May, and there hold a Court for the Tryal 
of such Causes arising in the several and Respective Coun- 
ties, as are brought to Issue in our said Supreme Court ; 
which Causes our Chief Justice or other Justice of our said 
Supreme Court, is hereby Impowered to hear and try, by 
Jurors of the said Counties, and on any Verdict in any of 
the said Counties, within our said Province, Judgment to 
Give, at our next Supreme Court of Judicature, to be hold- 
en at our City of Perth- Amboy, or Town of Burlington, 
after such Verdict given in any of the said Counties, within 
our said Province of New-Jersey ; which Court for Tryal of 
Causes shall be held in our several Counties, excepting 
Bergen and Cape-May, for and during a Term not exceed- 
ing Five Days, and at the Times and Places following, that 
is to say, 

For the Counties of Essex and Bergen, on the first 
Thursday after the second Monday of May, at Newark. 



APPENDIX E. 279 

For the County of Somerset, the Thursday next ensu- 
ing after the fourth Monday of May, at the Court-house of 
the same County. 

For the County of Monmouth, the first Tuesday of Oc- 
tober, at Freehold. 

For the County of Hunterdon, the fourth Monday of 
July, at Trent-Town. 

For the County of Gloucester, the Thursday next en- 
suing after the third Monday of July, at Gloucester. 

For the Counties of Salem and Cape-May, the third 
Monday of Jm/z/. 

Hereby Requiring and Commanding Our High-Sheriff, 
Justices of the Peace, the Mayor and Aldermen of any 
Corporation within any of Our said Counties, and all Offi- 
cers, Magisterial and Ministerial of any Courts within Our 
said Counties, to be Attending on our Chief Justice, or other 
Justices going the Circuit, at his Coming into and Leaving 
their several Counties, and during his Abode within the 
same, on Penalty to be proceeded against according to 
Law, for their or any of their Neglect and Contempt of 
Our Royal Authority and Command hereby signified. 

And it is further Ordained, That the Commissioners 
to te appointed for Taking of Special Bails in the respec- 
tive Counties of this Province, for every Bail-piece taken 
by them, shall take the Sum of Three Shillings, and no 
more. And the Commissioners for Taking of Affidavits, 
for every Sheet in an Affidavit, One Shilling, and no 
more. 

In Testimony whereof We have caused these Our Letters 
to be made Patent, and the Seal of Our Province of 
New- Jersey to be thereunto Affixed. Witness Our 



280 APPENDIX E. 

Trusty & Well -beloved William Burnet, Esq., Capt. 
General and Governour in Chief of the Provinces of 
New-Jersey, New-York, and Territories thereon de- 
pending in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, 
&c., in Council at Perth- Amboy, the 23rd Day of April, 
in the Tenth year of Our Reign, Annoq. Domini, 1724. 



APPENDIX F. 



An Ordinance for Regulating the Courts of Judica- 
ture in the Province of New- Jersey. 

GEORGE, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, 
France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c. 
Whereas We have thought fit, by Advice of the most 
Honourable, the Lords of Our Privy Council, at Our Court 
at St. James's, on the Twentieth Day af January, in the 
Eighth Year of Our Reign, to Disallow some Laws or Acts 
of General Assembly of the Province of New-Jersey, made 
and Enacted by the Governour, Council and Representa- 
tives of that Province in General Assembly met, viz., One 
entituled, An Act for shortening of Law Suits and Regulat- 
ing the Practice of the Law ; One other Act, entituled, An 
Act for Acknowledging and Recording of Deeds and Con- 
veyances of Land within each respective County of this 
Province ; and one other Act, entituled, An Act for En- 
forcing the Observation of an Ordinance for Establishing 
Fees within this Province. And Whereas a late Ordi- 
nance for Establishing Courts of Judicature within the 
same Province, was in some measure made conformable to 
one of the said Laws, so as aforesaid Disallowed. And 



282 APPENDIX F. 

whereas another Ordinance was made, bearing Date the 
Twenty-ninth Day of April, 1723, upon the Repeal of the 
said Acts, for Regulating of Courts of Judicature, which is 
found inconvenient to the Inhabitants of this Province, 
both as to the Times of the Sitting of the Courts, and for 
want of Persons authorized to take Bail in the Counties, 
and of Courts for Tryals of Causes in the Counties, that 
came to issue in the Supreme Court, We have therefore 
thought fit to Ordain, and We do hereby Ordain, Direct 
and Impower Every Justice of the Peace residing within 
any Town or County in the Province of Nova-Ccesarea or 
New-Jersey, to have Cognizance of all Causes and Cases 
of Debt and Trespass, of the Value of Forty Shillings, or 
under ; All which Causes and Cases shall and may be 
Heard, Tryed and finally Determined, without a Jury, by 
any of the said Justices of the Peace, as aforesaid, Except- 
ing such Cases where the Titles of Land are or may be 
any wise concerned. 

AND We do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That 
the Process of Warning against Free-holders and Inhabi- 
tants shall be by Summons under the Hand of any of the 
said Justices of the Peace, directed to the Constable of the 
Town or Precinct, or to any deputed by him, where the 
Party Complained against doth dwell or reside. Which 
Summons shall be served upon the Person or left at the 
House or Place of Abode of the Defendant, Four Days, at 
least, before the Time appointed for the Hearing of the 
Plaint. And in case the Defendant does not appear at the 
time appointed, on Affidavit made by the said Constable or 
his Deputy, That the said Summons was duly served on 
the Defendant's Person or left at the Defendant's House or 
Place of Abode, with some of the Family of the said De- 
fendant, the Justice granting such Summons may, and 



APPENDIX F. 



283 



shall not otherwise, proceed to Hear such Cause or Causes, 
and Determine the same in the Defendant's Absence, and 
grant Execution thereupon, directed to any of the Consta- 
bles, or Deputy Constables, to be levyed upon the Defend- 
ant's Goods and Chatties, and for want thereof upon the 
Person of the Defendant, which he is hereby Impowered 
and Directed to execute accordingly. 

And We do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That 
the Process against an Itinerant Person, Inmate or For- 
reigner shall be by Warrant from any one Justice of the 
Peace, to be served by any Constable or his Deputy within 
that County, who shall, by virtue thereof, Arrest the Party, 
and him safely keep till he shall be carried before the said 
Justice, who shall and may immediately Hear, Try and 
finally Determine all such Causes and Cases of Debt and 
Trespass, as aforesaid, to the Value of Forty Shillings, or 
under, by Awarding Judgment and Execution. And if 
Payment be not immediately made, the Constable shall de- 
liver the said Party to the Sheriff of that County, who is 
hereby Required and Impowered to take him into Custody, 
and him safely keep until Payment be made of the same, 
with Charges. 

Provided always, and We do hereby further Ordain 
and Direct, That an Appeal shall be allowed to the Jus- 
tices of the same County at the next General Court of Ses- 
sions of the Peace held, for any Sum upwards of Ten Shil- 
lings, in all Causes or Cases Cognizable before them. 

And Whereas We are given to understand, that many 
of the Inhabitants of Our said Province live Remote from 
the Places in which We have appointed Our Supream 
Court to be held, and that it will be of great Ease and 
Conveniency to the said Inhabitants that a Court be held 
in each County, for Hearing, Trying and Determining of 



284 APPENDIX F. 

such Actions and Causes of Actions as shall arise within 
each of the said Counties, and Determinable by Juries of 
the same, We being willing and desirous to promote the 
Ease, Wellbeing and Security of all Our Loving Subjects, 
Inhabitants of the said Province of New-Jersey, and that 
Right and Justice may be distributed among them, and 
that all matters of Differences may be Determined by their 
Equals and Neighbors, as nigh as the present Circum- 
stances of Our said Province will admit, according to the 
good and antient Laws and Usages of Our Kingdom of 
Great Britain: Do Ordain and Direct, That the County 
Courts for holding of Pleas, continue to be held and kept in 
each of the several and respective Counties of Our Pro- 
vince of New-Jersey, to Hear, and by the Verdict of 
Twelve Good Honest and Lawful Free-holders inhabiting 
within the said respective County where the said Court is 
held, to Try and Determine all Suits, Controversies, Quar- 
rels and Differences that may arise within the said County 
between Our Loving Subjects, for any Sum above the Va- 
lue of Forty Shillings, (Causes wherein the Right or Title 
of any Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments in any wise 
concerned, Excepted,) Which said Suits, Controversies, 
Quarrels and Differences shall be Tryed and Determined 
in the said Courts by a Jury of Twelve Good and Lawful 
Free-holders as aforesaid, and not otherwise. 

And Whereas it may so happen, that by the Craft and 
Artful Practice of the Persons Concerned in the said 
Causes, Quarrels and Controversies Tryable in the said 
County Courts for holding of Pleas, the said Causes, Quar- 
rels and Controversies may be drawn, contrary to Our 
Royal Intention, from the Examination of the Jury, to the 
great Delay and Hindrance of Justice ; and it may also 
happen, that upon special Verdicts given in Our said Coun- 



APPENDIX F. 



285 



ty Courts for holding of Pleas, and upon the Pleadings be- 
fore and after Verdicts, Matters of Law may arise, We 
have therefore thought Jit to Ordain and Direct, That on 
any Special Verdict found by a Jury in any of the said 
Courts, or any Joynder in Demurrer, or Pleading before or 
after Verdict, whereby any Points of Law may be in issue, 
(such Points of Law as are necessary to be Determined by 
the Judges of the said Courts, and for the Regulation and 
Information of the Jury, only Excepted,) That then and in 
such Case, the Clerk of any of the said County Courts, re- 
spectively, where the same shall happen, shall make up a 
Record of all the Pleadings or Special Verdicts, as the case 
may happen, and Transmit the same to the Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court, at the next Supreme Court that shall 
sit after such Joinder in Demurrer, Pleading made or Spe- 
cial Verdict given, that Judgment may be given thereon, 
by the Justices of Our Supreme Court. 

And We do hereby Ordain and Direct, that the Courts 
of General Sessions of the Peace, and County Courts for 
holding of Pleas, shall be held and kept in each respective 
County within this Province, at the Times and Places here- 
after mentioned, that is to say, The first and next Court of 
Sessions and Pleas, at the Times and Places to which the 
same Courts were respectively Adjourned, and afterwards, 
in every year, to be Opened on the following Days, viz. 

For the County of Bergen, at the Court-house of the 
said County on the second Monday of September, first 
Monday of December, third Monday of February, and se- 
cond Monday of May. 

For the County of Essex, at Newark, on the Thursday 
next ensuing after the second Monday of September ; the 
Thursday next ensuing after the first Monday of Decem- 
ber; the Thursday next ensuing after the third Monday of 



286 APPENDIX F. 

February ; the Thursday next ensuing after the second 
Monday of May. 

For the County of Middlesex, at the City of Perth- 
Amboy, on the third Monday of September, second Monday 
of December, fourth Monday of February, and fourth Mon- 
day of May. 

For the County of Somerset, at the Court-house of the 
same County, on the Thursday next ensuing after the 
third Monday of September ; the Thursday next ensuing 
after the second Monday of December ; the Thursday next 
ensuing after the fourth Monday of February; and the 
Thursday next ensuing after the fourth Monday of 
May. 

For the County of Monmouth, at the Court-house of the 
same County, on the first Monday of October, third Mon- 
day of December, first Monday of March, and second Mbw- 
dfar/ of Jwwe. 

For the County of Hunterdon, at the Court-house of 
the same County, the third Monday of October, fourth Mon- 
day of December, second Monday of March, fourth Mon- 
day of July. 

For the County of Burlington, at the Town-house of 
Burlington, on the Thursday next ensuing after the fourth 
Monday of /w/y ; the Thursday next ensuing after the 
third Monday of October ; the Thursday next ensuing af- 
ter the fourth Monday of December ; and the Thursday 
next ensuing after the second Monday of March. 

For the County of Gloucester, at Gloucester, on the se- 
cond Monday of August, fourth Monday of October, first 
Monday of January, and third Monday of March. 

For the County of Salem, on the Thursday next ensuing 
after the second Monday of August ; the Thursday next 
ensuing after the fourth Monday of October ; the Thursday 



APPENDIX F. 



287 



next ensuing after the first Monday of January ; and the 
Thursday next ensuing after the third Monday of March. 

For the County of Cape-May, at Cape-May, the se- 
cond Monday of July, the first Monday of November, the 
second Monday of January, and the first Monday of April. 
And shall sit any time, not exceeding Three Days. 

And Whereas the Times of the Sitting of Our Supreme 
Court of Our said Province of New- Jersey, are, by Experi- 
ence, found to be inconvenient, and to occasion Delay in 
the Administration of Justice, to the great Hurt of several 
of our Loving Subjects who have Causes depending in Our 
said Supreme Court. For Remedy whereof, for the Fu- 
ture, We have thought fit to Ordain, and do hereby Ordain 
and Direct, That Our Supreme Court of Our said Pro- 
vince of New-Jersey shall sit and be held at the Places fol- 
lowing, and shall sit at and during the Times herein after 
mentioned, That is to say, The next Supreme Court at 
Burlington and Amboy, at the Times unto which the said 
Courts were last respectfully, Adjourned, and afterwards 
on the last Monday of March at Burlington, the third 
Monday of May at Perth- Amboy. The first Monday of 
August at Burlington, and the fourth Monday of Septe?n- 
ber at Perth-Amboy, yearly. Which Supreme Court shall 
continue for any Term not Exceeding Six Days, and is 
hereby impowered to have Cognizance of all Pleas, Civil, 
Criminal and Mixt, within this Province, as fully and am- 
ply, to all Intents, Constructions and Purposes whatsoever, 
as the Courts of Kings Bench, Common Pleas and Exche- 
quer have, or ought to have in our Kingdom of Great Bri- 
tain. In which Court all and every Person and Persons 
whatsoever may Commence and Prosecute any Action or 
Suit, Real, Personal or Mixt, above the Value of I'irr 
Pounds. And any Action, Suit or Controversie, Informa- 



288 APPENDIX F. 

tion, Indictment, or Prosecution Depending, or on which 
Judgment has been given in any of Our Inferiour Courts, 
may, by Certiorari, Habeas Corpus, Writs of Error, or 
any other Lawful Writ or Method, be Removed into Our 
said Supreme Court, from any of the Inferiour Courts 
within Our said Province. 

And We do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That 
the Office of the Clerk of the said Supreme Court of Judi- 
cature shall be kept by himself or his sufficient Deputy, at 
Perth-Amboy in the Eastern Division, and Burlington in 
the Western Division. And that all Writs and Process of 
the Supreme Court for Our Province of New-Jersey, shall 
issue out of either of the said Places indifferently, and that 
the Courts of Perth-Amboy and Burlington, shall take Cog- 
nizance of such Writs and Process accordingly. Never- 
theless so, that all Actions and Causes of Actions arising in 
either the Eastern or Western Division of this Province, 
are to be Tryed in, and a Verdict given by Jurors of that 
Division only in which the Cause of Action shall arise, as 
near and agreeable to the Laws, Customs and Usages of 
Our said Kingdom of Great Britain, as may be. 

And in which soever of the Divisions the Venue is laid, 
there shall the Declarations, Pleas, and all other Pleadings 
in that Cause be filed. 

And for the greater Ease and Benefit of all Our Loving 
Subjects inhabiting within Our said Province of New-Jer- 
sey, and of all Persons whatsoever in taking Recognizances 
of Special Bail upon all Actions ana" Suits depending, or to 
be depending in Our said Supreme Court in our said Pro- 
vince of New-Jersey, We do hereby Impower any two of 
Our Judges of Our Supreme Court, of which Our Chief 
Justice to be always one, to grant one or more Commis- 
sion or Commissions under the Seal of the said Supreme 



APPENDIX F. 289 

Court, from time to time, as need shall require, to impower 
such and so many Persons, as by Our said Chief Justice 
and other Judge of Our Supreme Court aforesaid, shall be 
thought fit and necessary, in all and every the several 
Counties in Our said Province of New-Jersey, to take and 
receive all and every such Recognizance or Recognizances 
of Bail or Bails, as any Person or Persons shall be willing 
and desirous to acknowledge or make before any of the 
Persons so impowered, in any Action or Suit depending, 
or hereafter to be depending in Our said Supreme Court of 
Our Province of New- Jersey, in such manner and form, 
and by such Recognizance or Bail-piece as the Judges of 
Our Supreme Court have here-to-fore used to take the same ; 
Which said Recognizance or Recognizances of Bail or Bail- 
pieces shall be Transmitted to some one of the Judges of 
Our Supreme Court, and by him received, upon payment 
of the usual Fees, and Affidavits made, according to the 
Directions in one Act of the Parliament in England, made in 
the fourth and fifth years of the Reign of Our Royal Pre- 
decessors William and Mary, King and Queen of England, 
Scotland, France and Ireland, &c, Entituled, An Act for tak- 
ing Special Bails in the Country, upon Actions and Suits de- 
fending in the Courts of Kings Bench, Common Pleas and 
Exchequer at Westminster. Which Act of Parliament 
We hereby Recommend to Our Judges of Our Supreme 
Court in Our said Province of New-Jersey, and to the Per- 
sons by them impowered to take and receive Recogni- 
zances of Special Bail, as a Direction to Govern themselves 
by, as nearly as the Circumstances of Our said Province of 
New-Jersey will admit the same to be done. 

And Whereas the bringing of Juries and Evidences 
from the several Counties within Our Province of New- 
Jersey, will be at the great Charge and Expense of such of 
19 



290 APPENDIX F. 

Our Loving Subjects as have Causes Depending, or that 
will be Depending in Our Supreme Court of Our said Pro- 
vince of New-Jersey, We do, for the ease and benefit of 
Our said Loving Subjects, further Ordain, That Our Chief 
Justice or other Justices of Our Supreme Court, shall an- 
nually and every Year (if there be occasion) go into every 
County in Our said Province, except the County of Cape- 
May, and there to hold a Court for the Tryal of such 
Causes arising in the several and Respective Counties, as 
are brought to Issue in Our said Supreme Court, which 
Causes Our Chief Justice or other Justices of Our said Su- 
preme Court, is hereby Impowered to hear and try, by Ju- 
rors of the said Counties, and on any Verdict in any of the 
said Counties, within Our said Province, Judgment to Give, 
at Our next Supreme Court of Judicature, to be holden at 
Our City of Perth- Amboy, or Town of Burlington, after such 
Verdict given in any of the said Counties, within Our said 
Province of New-Jersey ; which Court for Tryal of Causes 
shall be held in our several Counties, excepting Cape-May, 
for and during a Term not exceeding Five Days, and at 
the Times and Places following, that is to say, 

For the County of Bergen, on the second Monday of 
May, at Hackinsack. 

For the County of Essex, on the first Thursday after 
the second Monday of May, at Newark. 

For the County of Somerset, the Thursday next ensu- 
ing after the fourth Monday of May, at the Court-house of 
the same County. 

For the County of Monmouth, the first Tuesday of Oc- 
tober, at Freehold. 

For the County of Hunterdon, the fourth Monday of 
July, at Trent-Town. 

For the County of Gloucester, the Thursday next ensu- 
ing after the third Monday of July, at Gloucester. 



APPENDIX F. 



291 



For the Counties of Salem and Cape-May, the third 
Monday of July. 

Hereby Requiring and Commanding Our High-Sheriff, 
Justices of the Peace, the Mayor and Aldermen of any 
Corporation within any of Our said Counties, and all Offi- 
cers, Magisterial and Ministerial of any Courts within Our 
said Counties, to be Attending on Our Chief Justice, or 
other Justice going the Circuit, at his Coming into and 
Leaving their several Counties, and during his Abode 
within the same, on Penalty to be proceeded against ac- 
cording to Law, for their or any of their Neglect and Con- 
tempt of Our Royal Authority and Command hereby sig- 
nified. 

And it is further Ordained, That the Commissioners to 
be appointed for Taking of Special Bails in the respective 
Counties of this Province, for every Bail-piece taken by 
them, they shall take the Sum of Three Shillings, and no 
more. And the Commissioners for Taking of Affidavits, 
for every Sheet in an Affidavit, One Shilling, and no 
more. 

In Testimony wherof We have caused these Our Letters 
to be made Patent, and the Seal of Our Province of 
New-Jersey to be thereunto Affixed. Witness Our 
Trusty & Well-beloved William Burnet, Esq., General 
and Governour in Chief of the Provinces of New-Jersey, 
New-York, and Territories thereon depending in Ame- 
rica, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c, in Council at 
Perth- Amboy, the Twenty-first Day of August, in the 
Twelfth year of Our Reign, 1725. 

SMITH. 



APPENDIX G. 



An Ordinance for Regulating Courts of Judicature 
in the Province of New- Jersey. 

GEORGE the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great 
Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, 
&c. Whereas the present Ordinance for Regulating Courts 
of Judicature is found inconvenient to the Inhabitants of this 
Province, We have therefore thought fit to Ordain, and We 
do hereby Ordain, Direct and Impower Every Justice of 
the Peace residing within any Town or County in the Pro- 
vince of Nova-Ccesarea or New- Jersey, to have Cognizance 
of all Causes and Cases of Debt and Trespass, of the Value 
of Forty Shillings, or under ; All which Causes and Cases 
shall and may be Heard, Tryed and finally Determined, 
without a Jury, by any of the said Justices of the Peace, 
as aforesaid, Excepting such Cases where the Titles of 
Land are or may be any wise concerned. 

AND We do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That 
Process of Warning against Free-holders and Inhabitants 
shall be by Summons under the Hand of any of the said 



APPENDIX G. 293 

Justices of the Peace, directed to the Constable of the 
Town or Precinct, or to any deputed by him, where the 
Party Complained against doth dwell or reside. Which 
Summons shall be served upon the Person or left at the 
House or Place of Abode of the Defendant, Four Days, at 
least, before the Time appointed for the Hearing of the 
Plaint. And in case the Defendant does not appear at the 
time appointed, on Affidavit made by the said Constable or 
his Deputy, That the said Summons was duly served on 
the Defendant's Person or left at the Defendant's House or 
Place of Abode, with some of the Family of the said De- 
fendant, the Justice granting such Summons may, and shall 
not otherwise, proceed to Hear such Cause or Causes, and 
Determine the same in the Defendant's Absence, and grant 
Execution thereupon, directed to any of the Constables or 
Deputy Constables, to be levyed upon the Defendant's 
Goods and Chattels, and for want thereof upon the Person 
of the Defendant, which he is hereby Impowered and Di- 
rected to execute accordingly. 

And We do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That the 
Process against an Itinerant Person, Inmate or Foreigner 
shall be by Warrant from any one Justice of the Peace, to 
be served by any Constable or his Deputy within that 
County, who shall, by virtue thereof, Arrest the Party, 
and him safely keep till he shall be carried before the said 
Justice, who shall and may immediately Hear, Try, and 
finally Determine all such Causes and Cases of Debt and 
Trespass, as aforesaid, to the Value of Forty Shillings, or 
under, by Awarding Judgment and Execution. And if 
Payment be not immediately made, the Constable shall de- 
liver the said Party to the Sheriff of that County, who is 
hereby Required and Impowered to take him into Custody, 



294 APPENDIX G. 

and him safely keep until Payment be made of the same, 
with Charges. 

Provided always, and We do hereby further Ordain 
and Direct, That an Appeal shall be allowed to the Jus- 
tices of the same County at the next General Court of Ses- 
sions of the Peace held, for any Sum upwards of Ten Shil- 
lings, in all Causes or Cases cognizable before them. 

And Whereas We are given to understand, that many 
of the Inhabitants of Our said Province live Remote from 
the Places in which We have appointed Our Supreme 
Court to be held, and that it will be of great Ease and Con- 
veniency to the said Inhabitants that a Court be held in 
each County, for the Hearing, Trying and Determining of 
such Actions and Causes of Actions as shall arise within 
each of the said Counties, and Determinable by Juries of 
the same, We being willing and desirous to promote the 
Ease, Well-being and Security of all Our Loving Subjects, 
Inhabitants of the said Province of New- Jersey, and that 
Right and Justice might be distributed among them, and 
that all matters of Difference may be by their Equals and 
Neighbors, as nigh as the present Circumstances of Our said 
Province will admit, according to the good and ancient 
Laws and Usages of Our Kingdom of Great Britain, Do 
Ordain and Direct, That the County Courts for holding of 
Pleas, continue to be held and kept in each of the several 
and respective Counties of Our Province of New-Jersey, to 
Hear, and by the Verdict of Twelve Good Honest and 
lawful Free-holders inhabiting within the said respective 
County where the said Court is held, to Try and Deter- 
mine all Suits, Controversies, Quarrels and Differences that 
may arise within the said County between Our Loving 



APPENDIX G. 



295 



Subjects, for any Sum above the Value of Forty Shillings, 
(Causes wherein the Right or Title of any Lands, Tene- 
ments or Hereditaments in any wise concerned, Excepted,) 
Which said Suits, Controversies, Quarrels and Differences 
shall be Tryed and Determined in the said Courts by a 
Jury of Twelve Good and Lawful Free-holders as afore- 
said, and not otherwise. 

And Whereas it may so happen, that by the Craft and 
Artful Practice of the Persons Concerned in the said 
Causes, Quarrels and Controversies Tryable in the said 
County Court for holding of Pleas, the said Causes, Quar- 
rels and Controversies may be drawn, contrary to Our 
Royal Intention, from the Examination of the Jury, to the 
great Delay and Hindrance of Justice ; and it may also 
happen, that upon special Verdicts given in Our said Coun- 
ty Courts for holding of Pleas, and upon the Pleadings be- 
fore and after Verdicts, Matters of Law may arise, We 
have therefore thought fit to Ordain and Direct, That on 
any Special Verdict found by a Jury in any of the said 
Courts, or any Joinder in Demurrer, or Pleading before or 
after Verdict, wherein the matter of Controversy is above 
Twenty Pounds, whereby any Points of Law may be in issue, 
(such Points of Law as are necessary to be Determined by 
the Judges of the said Courts, for the Regulation and In- 
formation of the Jury, only Excepted,) That then and in 
such Case, the Clerks of any of the said County Courts, re- 
spectively, where the same shall happen, shall make up a 
Record of all the Pleadings or Special Verdicts, as the case 
may happen, and Transmit the same to the Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court, at the next Supreme Court that shall 
sit after such Joinder in Demurrer, Pleading made or Spe- 
cial Verdict given, that Judgment may be given thereon, 
by the Justices of Our Supreme Court. 



296 APPENDIX G. 

And We do hereby Ordain and Direct, that the Courts 
of General Sessions of the Peace, and County Courts for 
holding of Pleas, shall be held and kept in each respective 
County within this Province, at the Times and Places here- 
after mentioned, that is to say, The first and next Court of 
Sessions and Pleas, at the Times and Places to which the 
same Courts were respectively last Adjourned, and after- 
wards, in every year, to be Opened on the following 
Days, viz. 

For the County of Bergen, at the Court-house of the 
said County on the second Tuesday of June, first Tues- 
day of October, first Tuesday of January, and first Tuesday 
of April. 

For the County of Essex, at Newark, on the third 
Tuesday of June, fourth Tuesday of September, second 
Tuesday of January, and second Tuesday of April. 

For the County of Middlesex, at the City of Perth- 
Amboy, on the third Tuesday of July, second Tuesday of 
October, third Tuesday of January, and third Tuesday of 
April. 

For the County of Somerset, at the Court-house of the 
same County, on the second Tuesday of June, first Tues- 
day of October, first Tuesday of January, and first Tues- 
day of April. 

For the County of Monmouth, at the Court-house of the 
same County, on the fourth Tuesday of July, third Tues- 
day of October, fourth Tuesday of January, and fourth 
Tuesday of April. 

For the County of Hunterdon, at the Court-house of the 
same County, on the third Tuesday of May, first Tuesday 
of August, fourth Tuesday of October, and first Tuesday of 
February. 

For the County of Burlington, at the Town-house of 



APPENDIX G. 



297 



Burlington, on the first Tuesday of May, second Tuesday 
of August, first Tuesday of November, and second Tuesday 
of February. 

For the County of Gloucester, at Gloucester, on the se- 
cond Tuesday of June, third Tuesday of September, fourth 
Tuesday of December, and fourth Tuesday of March. 

For the County of Salem, on the first Tuesday of June, 
third Tuesday of August, fourth Tuesday of November, and 
third Tuesday of February. 

For the County of Cape-May, at Cape-May, the third 
Tuesday of May, first Tuesday of August, fourth Tuesday 
of October, and first Tuesday of February. And shall sit 
any time not exceeding Four Days. 

And Whereas the sitting of Our Supreme Court of Our 
said Province of New-Jersey, alternately at Burlington and 
Amboy, is, by Experience, found to be inconvenient, and to 
occasion Intricacy in the Administration of Justice, to the 
great hurt of several of our loving Subjects who have 
Causes depending in our said Supreme Court, For Remedy 
whereof, for the future, We have thought fit to Ordain, and 
do hereby Ordain and Direct, That Our Supreme Court of 
Our said Province of New-Jersey shall sit and be held at 
the Time unto which the said Court was last adjourn'd, 
and afterwards there shall one Supreme Court be held on 
the first Tuesday of May, second Tuesday of August, first 
Tuesday of November, and third Tuesday of February, at 
Burlington, yearly, for the Western Division of the said 
Province. 

And there shall be one other Supreme Court held on 
the second Tuesday of May, third Tuesday of August, se- 
cond Tuesday of November, and fourth Tuesday of Feb- 
ruary, at Perth- Amboy, yearly, for the Eastern Division of 



298 APPENDIX G. 

the said Province. Which Supreme Courts shall continue 
for any term not exceeding Five Days, and are hereby im- 
powered to have cognizance of all Pleas, civil, criminal and 
mixt, within the respective Divisions of this Province, as 
fully and amply, to all intents, constructions and purposes 
whatsoever, as the Courts of Kings-Bench, Common-Pleas 
and Exchequer have, or ought to have in Our Kingdom of 
Great Britain. In which Courts all and every Person and 
Persons whatsoever may commence and Prosecute any 
Action or Suit, Real, Personal or mixt, above the Value 
of Twenty Pounds. And any Action, Suit or controversy, 
information, indictment, or prosecution depending, or on 
which Judgment has been given in any of Our Inferiour 
Courts by Law Removeable, may, by Certiorari, Habeas 
Corpus, Writ of Error, or any other Lawful Writ or 
Method, be Removed into Our said Supreme Courts, from 
any of the Inferiour Courts within Our said Province. 

And We do hereby further Ordain and Direct, That the 
Office of Clerk of the said Supreme Court of Judicature 
shall be kept by himself or his sufficient Deputy, at Perth- 
Amboy in the Eastern Division, and at Burlington in the 
Western Division, And that all Actions and causes of Ac- 
tions arising in either the Eastern or Western Division of 
this Province, are to be Tryed in, and a Verdict given by 
the Jurors of that Division only in which the Cause of Action 
shall arise, as near and agreeable to the Laws, Customs 
and Usages in Our Kingdom of Great Britain, as may be. 

Provided always, That no Jurors be returned, or any 
Tryals of Causes be had by the Country in the Terms of 
August or February, but the same shall only be for the Re- 
turns of other Writs, and Law Proceedings. And all Try- 
als by the Country, and Returns of Juries to the said Courts 
shall only be to the Terms of May and Nove?nber. 



APPENDIX G. 



And for the greater Ease and Benefit of all our Loving 
Subjects inhabiting withing Our said Province of New-Jer- 
sey, and of all Persons whatsoever in taking Recognizance of 
Special Bail upon all Actions and Suits depending, or to be 
depending in Our said Supreme Court in Our said Province 
of New-Jersey, We do hereby Impower any two of Our 
Judges of Our Supreme Courts, of which Our Chief Jus- 
tice to be always one, to grant one or more Commission or 
Commissions under the Seal of the said Supreme Courts, 
from time to time, as need shall require, to impower such 
and so many Persons, as by Our said Chief Justice and 
other Judge of Our Supreme Courts aforesaid, shall be 
thought fit and necessary, in all and every of the several 
Counties in Our said Province of New-Jersey, to take and 
receive all and every such Recognizance or Recognizances 
of Bail or Bails, as any Person or Persons shall be will- 
ing and desirous to acknowledge or make before the Per- 
sons so impowered, in any Action or Suit depending, or 
hereafter to be depending in Our said Supreme Courts of 
Our said Province of New- Jersey, in such manner and form, 
and by such Recognizance or Bail-piece as the Judges of 
Our Supreme Courts have here-to-fore used to take the 
same : Which said Recognizance or Recognizances of Bail 
or Bail-piece shall be transmitted to some one of the 
Judges of Our Supreme Courts, and by him received, upon 
payment of the usual Fees, and Affidavits made, according 
to the Directions in one Act of Parliament in England, 
made in the fourth and fifth years of the Reign of Our 
Royal Predecessors William and Mary, King and Queen 
of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, &c, Entituled 
An Act for tailing Special Bails in the Country, upon Ac- 
tions and Suits depending in the Courts of Kings-Bench, 
Common-Pleas and Exchequer at Westminster; Which 



300 APPENDIX G. 

Act of Parliament We hereby Recommend to Our Judges 
of our Supreme Courts in our said Province of New-Jersey, 
and to the Persons by them impowered to take and receive 
Recognizances of Special Bail, as a Direction to Govern 
themselves by, as nearly as the Circumstances of Our said 
Province of New-Jersey will admit the same to be done. 

And Whereas the bringing of Jurors and Evidences 
from the several Counties within Our Province of New- 
Jersey, will be at the great charge and expense of such of 
our loving Subjects as have causes depending, or that 
will be Depending in our Supreme Courts of our said Pro- 
vince of New-Jersey, We do, for the ease and benefit of 
our said loving Subjects, further Ordain, That our Chief 
Justice or other Justice of our Supreme Courts, shall annu- 
ally and every Year (if there be occasion) go into every 
County in our said Province, except the County of Cape- 
May, and there to hold a Court for the Tryal of such 
causes arising in the several and respective Counties, as 
are brought to Issue in our said Supreme Courts ; which 
causes our Chief Justice or other Justices of our Su- 
preme Courts, is hereby Impowered to hear and try, by 
Jurors of the said Counties, and on any Verdict in any of 
the said Counties, within our said Province, Judgment to 
give, at Our next Supreme Court of Judicature, to be hold- 
en at Our City of Perth- Amboy, for the Eastern Division, 
or Town of Burlington, for the Western Division, after 
such Verdict given in any of the said Counties, within Our 
said Province of New-Jersey. Which Courts for Tryal of 
Causes shall be held in our several Counties, excepting 
Cape-May, for and during a Term not exceeding Five 
Days, and at the Times and Places following, that is to say, 

For the County of Bergen, on the first Tuesday of 
April, at Hackinsack, for the County of Bergen. 



APPENDIX G. 301 

For the County of Essex, on the second Tuesday of 
April, at Newark. 

For the County of Somerset, on the first Tuesday of 
October, at the Court-house of the same County. 

For the County of Monmouth, on the fourth Tuesday of 
April, at Free-hold. 

For the County of Hunterdon, on the fourth Tuesday in 
October, at Trent-Town. 

For the County of Gloucester, on the second Tuesday in 
June, at Gloucester. 

For the Counties of Salem and Cape-May, the first 
Tuesday in June, at Salem. 

Hereby Requiring and Commanding Our High-Sheriff, 
Justices of the Peace, the Mayor and Aldermen of any 
Corporation within any of Our said Counties, and all Offi- 
cers, Magisterial and Ministerial of any Courts within Our 
said Counties, to be Attending on our Chief Justice, or other 
Justices going the Circuit, at his Coming into and Leaving 
their several Counties, and during his Abode within the 
same, on Penalty to be proceeded against according to 
Law, for their or any of their Neglect and Contempt of 
Our Royal Authority and Command hereby signified. 

And it is further Ordained, That the Commissioners 
to te appointed for Taking of Special Bails in the respec- 
tive Counties of this Province, for every Bail-piece taken 
by them, they shall take the Sum of Three Shillings, and 
no more. And the Commissioners for Taking of Affidavits, 
for every Sheet in an Affidavit, One Shilling, and no 
more. 

In Testimony whereof We have caused these Our Letters 
to be made Patent, and the Seal of Our Province of 



302 APPENDIX G. 

New-Jersey to be thereunto Affixed. Witness Our 
Trusty 8? Well-beloved William Burnet, Esq., Capt. 
General and Governour in Chief of the Provinces of 
New-Jersey, New- York, and Territories thereon de- 
pending in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, 
fyc, in Council at Perth- Amboy, the 10th Day of Feb- 
ruary, in the first Year of Our Reign, 1728. 

SMITH. 



INDEX. 



A 

Adams (Samuel). His letter to Richard 
Henry Lee, stating that the New Jersey 
delegates were not empowered to give their 
voice for independence ; shown to be er- 
roneous, 197, note. 

Alexander (James). Father of Lord Stirling ; 
his name signed to the " Elizabethtown Bill 
in Chancery," 120; a member of Council, 
and a large proprietor of New Jersey, 127. 

Allen (Jedidiah). Indicted for uttering se- 
ditious words of Lord Cornbury, 53 ; grand 
jury return the bills with an ignoramus; in- 
formations exhibited against him, 54; ap- 
plies for a postponement of his trial, which 
is allowed upon conditions, with which he 
refuses to comply ; he is committed for con- 
tempt, 55. 

Allinson (Samuel). An attorney at law, 
charged before the House of Assembly with 
taking illegal fees; is tried and acquitted, 
167 ; appears at the bar of the Assembly, 
on behalf of the lawyers of New Jersev, 168. 

Answer. To the " Elizabethtown Bill in 
Chancery;" its prolixity, 120; published, 
with a title as long as that of the Bill ; 
names of the Counsel by whom it was signed, 
121 

Appeals (Court of). Erected by the Queen 
in Council ; adopted by the Constitution of 
1776; confirmed and continued by act of 
the Legislature, 45, note. 

Assembly (General). First meeting of, in 
New Jersey, 5 ; act of, for establishing 
Courts of justice, 7 ; present remonstrance 
to Lord Cornbnry, 62 ; his answer to it, 05 
et seq ; their replication, 68 ; review the 
address of the Lieutenant Govenor and 
Council to the Queen, and expel William 
Sandford for having signed it, 71 ; address to 
Governor Burnet, asking for the appointment 
of a Chief Justice residing in New Jersey, 
104 ; investigate charges against the lawyers, 
165 et seq. 

Assize (Court of). The Supreme Court of 
the Province ; held once a year at Wood- 
bridge, 8. 

Attorneys. First act for regulation of; not 



permitted to practise without a license from 
the Governor, 23; required to serve an ap- 
prenticeship of at least seven years, or to 
pursue the study of the law four years after 
coming of full age, 132. 
Aynslri/ (William). Appointed Chief Justice ; 
takes his seat upon the bench ; dies soon 
alter his appointment, 151. 

B 

Bacon (Lord). His opinion of the qualities 
requisite for a Judge 184, note 

Bancroft. (History of the United States.) 
extracts from. 31, 103, note. 

Barclay (Robert). A Scotchman, and one 
of the proprietors of East Jersey, 12. 

Basse (Jeremiah). Indicted for perjury, 83 J 
tiied and acquitted, 84 ; stirs up prosecutions 
against the principal officers of the province, 
!)7 ; suspended by the Supreme Court from 
practising as an Attorney, 98 ; i* returned to 
the Assembly from the County of ('ape May, 
100; his Speech in the House, 101 ; acquires 
the confidence of Governor Hunter, ami is 
appointed Attorney General ; his commis- 
sion renewed by Governor Burnet ; his 
death, and will, 102. 

Bayard (Col. John). A pupil of the Rev. 
Samuel Finley, a member of the old Con- 
gress, and Speaker of the Rouse of Repre- 
sentatives of Pennsylvania, 191. 

Belcher (Governor), 151, 

Bernard (Governor), 151; 

Billop 'Christopher). Bided son of Thomas 
Farmar ; marries the daughter of < 'apian 
Christopher Billopj adopts her father's 
name ; commands a corps of New \ ork 
loyalists during the revolutionary war: is 
taken prisoner, confined in the jail at Bur- 
lington, and treated with great severity, 12- ] 
his estate is confiscated afiortlie peace: lie 
goes to the Province of New Brunswick, 
becomes a member of the Assembly, ami of 
Council, and dies at St. JolmV 129 
Binney (Mr ) Extract from bis Euloyium on 

Chief Justice Tilsham, 113, note. 
Blootnfield (Joseph;. Governor of New Jer- 
sey, 128, 179. 



304 



INDEX. 



Boudinot (Elias). President of Congress un- 
der ihe Confederation, member of the House 
of Representatives after the adoption of the 
Constitution, and the first Director of the 
Mint of the United States; his sister the wife 
of Richard Stockton. 199, note. 

Boudinot (Elislia). Of Newark ; Richard 
Stockton, William Griffith, andAlexanderC. 
McWhorter, students in his office. 189, note. 

Brougham (Lord). Extract from his Speech 
in the House of Commons on Law Reform, 
3 ; notice of his Speech on Local Courts, 
9, note. 

Burke. Extracts from his Speech on Concilia- 
tion with America, 21, 22, note. 

Burnet. Succeeds Hunter as Governor of 
New Jersey, 104 ; takes especial delight in 
the Court of Chancery, 107 ; a son of the 
celebrated Bishop Burnet ; named after the 
Prince of Orange ; his fortune wrecked in 
the South Sea scheme ; made Governor of 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire ; of con- 
vivial disposition and levity of manners ; his 
death and character, 108, note. 



Campbell (Lord). Extracts from his lives of 
the Lord Chancellors, SI, note ; 109, note; 
117, note. 

Carolana. Description of the Province of, 
by Daniel Coxe ; first published in 1722, 
and republished in 1741 ; contains a " curious 
discovery" of an easy communication be- 
tween the river Mississippi and the South 
Sea, 184 ; note ; plan of Union for the 
North American Colonies proposed in the 
preface, 135 ; Dr. Franklin's " Albany Plan 
of Union," little more than a transcript of 
it, 137. 

Carolina. Patent for, obtained by Sir Robert 
Heath, Attorney General to Charles the first ; 
declared to be void ; Dr. Coxe procures an 
assignment of it, 133 ; called Carolana in 
the original patent, 134. 

Carteret (Governor - !. Seeks to extend the 
jurisdiction of the municipal Courts of Ber- 
gen and VVoodbridge, 6 ; purchases an in- 
terest in the Elizabethtown grant, 123. 

Carteret (Lady Elizabeth). " Fashionable and 
kind-hearted;" Elizabethtown named after 
her, 13, 122 

Carteret (Sir George). One of the original 
proprietors of New Jersey, 5 ; concessions of 
Berkley and Carteret, 18. 

Chancery (Court of ). Recognized as a sepa- 
rate and distinct tribunal, in the first act for 
the establishment of Courts, 11 ; made part 
of the Court of Common Right, but after- 
wards separated fiom it, 14 ; never a popu- 
lar favorite in this country, 108 ; in England 
always a fair subject for the pen of the 
satirist, 109 ; note; becomes so unpopular in 
New-York, that no business is transacted in 
it for many years, 110; first established in 
Pennsylvania by Governor Keith, ib. ; diffi- 
culty with John Kinsey a Quaker lawyer, 
111 ; considered a "nuisance" and entirely 
laid aside, 112 ; has encountered less hostili- 
ty in New Jersey than in her sister states, 
ib. ; ordinance of Lord Cornbury for the 
erection of, 113; first ordinance for the 
regulation of fees in, 114 ; a committee of 
Council appointed to revise and moderate ' 



fees, and perform their task with an unspar- 
ing hand, 115 ; committee directed to inquire 
into the abuses which had crept into the 
practice of the Court, 116; the abuses pointed 
out, and the remedies proposed by them, 117 ; 
message of Go.eruor Franklin in relation to 
Court of Chancery, 123 ; sends the Assembly 
list of o°' prs in the Court, for which salaries 
ought to he provided, 124 ; ordinance of 
Governor Frar.klin, 125; the Constitution 
of 1770 adcts the Court, and the Legisla- 
ture confirm its powers, ib. ; office of Gover- 
nor and Chancellor united until the adoption 
of the Constitution of 1844 ; effect of this 
arrangement, 126. 

Clarke (Abraham). His object in introduc- 
ing the bill known as "Clarke's Practice 
Act," 115. 

Common Pleas (Courts of). First established 
by the Ordinance of Lord Cornbury ; when 
and where held ; their jurisdiction. 43 ; ac- 
count of the origin of this Court by Mr. Grif- 
fith erroneous, 47. 

Common Right (Court of). Came in place 
of the Court of Assize ; name first occurs in 
the instructions to Gawen Lawrie, Deputy 
Governor of East Jersey, 12 ; to consist of 
" twelve members, or six at the least ;" held 
first at Elizabethtown, but afterwards at 
Perth Amboy, 13. 

Common Law, brought from England by our 
fathers ; their birthright and inheritance, 15 ; 
reached its full vigor about the period of the 
first settlement of New Jersey, 16, note. 

Concessions, of Berkley and Carteret, the first 
Proprietors of New Jersey ; proclaimed re- 
ligious liberty in its fullest extent, and free- 
dom from taxation without the consent of 
the people, 18 ; published and circulated in 
England and throughout the Colonies, 19 ; 
of the Proprietors ot West Jersey, still more 
liberal ; their provision for liberty of con- 
science, 27 ; for freedom from taxation with- 
out the consent of the General Assembly, 
28 ; their language in reference to trial by 
jury, ib. ; members of Assembly to be chosen 
by ballot, 29 ; to receive instructions from 
those who sent them, and covenant for 
obedience under hand and seal, 30 ; these 
Concessions to be read at the opening and 
dissolving of every Assembly, and writ on 
fair tables in every hall of justice in the 
Province, 31. 

Cooper (Joseph) A member of Assembly 
from Gloucester County, during the admini- 
stration of Governor Morris, 143. 

Cornbury (Lord). Cousin of Queen Anne, and 
grandson of the illustrious Clarendon ; first 
Royal Governor of New Jersey, 40 ; forbid- 
den by his Instructions, but authorized by 
his Commission to establish Courts, 41 ; his 
Ordinance for the establishment of Courts, 
42 ; its provisions, 43 et scq. ; this Ordinance 
the foundation of our Common Law Courts, 
45 ; Mr. Griffith not aware of the existence 
of it, 46 ; a copy of it found in the State 
Library, 50 ; by whom probably framed, ib. ; 
his disputes with the Assembly, 62 ; their 
remonstrance presented to him by Samuel 
Jenings, and his reception of it, 64 ; his an- 
swer, 65 et seq. ; reply of the Assembly, 68 ; 
prevails upon the Lieutenant Governor and 
Council to unite in an address to the Queen 
justifying his conduct, 69 ; his removal 



INDEX. 



305 



and character, 70, note ; th .-n into jail by 
his creditors, and remain I iere. until ele- 
vated to the peerage by the death ot his 
father, 83. _, T 

County Courts first establishei ,n East Jersey, 
7 • when, and by whom held ; their juris- 
diction ; appeals from their judgments, 8 ; 
to be held four times a year in each County, 
11 • the Judges to be the Justices ot the 
Peace in the respective Counties 12 ; in 
West Jersey, when established ; when and 
by whom held, 24; their jurisdiction un- 
limited, in civil and criminal cases, ib. ; the 
great Courts of the Province, 25. 
Courts, Establishment of, coeval with the 
first settlement of the State, 4 ; first act o 
Assembly for the erection of, - ; modihed 
after the transfer of East Jersey to the 
twenty-four Proprietors. 11; of West Jersey 
under its Proprietary Government, .4 ; es- 
tablished by Ordinance of Governor and 
Council, after the Surrender, 42 ; first ordin- 
ance for the erection of Courts, and its pro- 
visions, 43 ; these Courts continued without 
any essential change to the Revolution ; 
have retained all their leading features to 
this day, 45. . „,, r . 

Core (Dr. Daniel). A great Proprietor of West 
Jersey and Governor of that Province tor 
some years: father of Daniel Coxe one ot 
the Justices of the Supreme Court, 132; pro- 
cures an assignment of the original Patent 
for larolina, and addresses a memorial to 
King William claiming the Province em- 
braced in it, 133; the memorial is referred 
to the Attorney General, who reports in 
favor of the validity of his title, 134. 
Coxe (Daniel). Son of Dr. Daniel Coxe ; signs 
the address of the Lieutenant Governor and 
Council to the Queen, 70, note ; is chosen 
speaker of the Assembly, 92; absents him- 
self from the House, with most ol his politi- 
cal friends, 98 ; the Assembly choose a new 
speaker, and expel the absent members, 99 , 
Governor Hunter, in a message to the As- 
sembly, condemns the conduct ot the late 
speaker, and the House concur with him, 
100 ; is appointed an associate Justice o the 
Supreme Court, 132; revives his lathers 
claim to Carolina, and makes various efforts 
to colonize it ; publishes a description ot the 
country, which he calls Carolana, 134 ; his 
preface to (he work contains a plan ol 
union for the North American Colonies, 
135; extract from it, 136, note ; the same 
with that, afterwards proposed by Dr. 1- rank- 
lin at Albany, and which has been so cele- 
brated 137; "remains upon the bench until 
his death, and discharges his duties with 
ability and integrity, ib. . 

Coxe (Daniel). A member of Council during 
Governor Franklin's administration ; duel 
agent in organizing the Hoard of Refuge es 
o? Royalists, in New-York ; made I resident 
of the Board ; reason assigned lor putting 
him in the chair, lf5, note. 
Cuthbert (Alexander). Ot Canada married a 
daughter of Richard Stockton, 199, note. 

D 

Dicktntm (John). At ameetiDgofthePhila- 

delphia bar, opposes a resolution to transact 

business without the use oi stamps, 104. 

20 



Dudley (Joseph). Chief Justice of New-York, 
and afterwards Governor of Massachusets, 
74. 

E 

East Jersey. Courts in, 7, 8; divided into 
Counties, and Townships, 11, note; laws 
of under the Proprietory Government, 205 
et seg. ; severity of the criminal code, 287 ; 
acts for the promotion of education, 208; 
thanksgiving days appointed by act of As- 
sembly, 209. , . , 
Ellesmere Lord Chancellor in the reign ot 
Q.ueen Elizabeth ; the vigor with which he 
corrected prolixity in chancery pleadings, 
117, note. ' 
Elitabcthtoum, named after Lady Carteret, 
long the capital of the Province ot bast 
Jersey, 13. • . ,. 
Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery. Embodies 
much of the early history of the State, -4 ; 
the most important bill ever filed in the I ro- 
vincial Court of Chancery, 119; contains 
fifteen hundred sheets; printed with the 
accompanying documents, making a tolio 
volume of" one hundred and sixty pages ; its 
title, 120 ; drawn np with great ability, UK ; 
cause never brought to a final hearing, l-J. 
Elmer (Ehenezer). Father of the Hon Lucius 
Q, C. Elmer of Bridgeton ; assisted in the 
destruction of the tea at Greenwich, 179. 
Essex. Reply of the Grand Jury ot, to tin- 
charge of Chief Justice Smyth, 175 et f *?. ; 
riots against the lawyers, 171 ; the rioters 
promptly punished, 172. 
Ewinff (James). Father of the distinguished 
Chief Justice of New Jersey ; assisted in the 
destruction of the tea at Greenwich, l,.i. 



Farmar (Thomas). An associate Justice pf the 

Supreme Court, 92; remove, iron; Staten 
Island to Ambov, 126; represents formanj 
years in the Assembly the County ol Middle 
sex 127; is made Chief Justice ; was in- 
sane for some years ; Kiseldesl sons 
the name of Christopher liillop, and became 
a noted character during the Revolutionary 

^"(Robert). Of Whitehill, in the County 
of Burlington ; married a daughter ol Kich- 
ard Stockton, 199, note 

Fietd (Abby). The only surviving daughter ol 
Richard Stockton ; is living at 1 micrton, 
199, note. , . , . ... 

Finlry (Re. Samuel). A npe scholar, and M - 
ful teacher, 190; establishes a school al Not- 
tingham, in Maryland, which becomes a 
very celebrated one, ib. ; some or the most 

disuVuished men in the country educated 

here, 191 ; is President pi the College ot 
New Jersey, upon Ins death Dr. Wither 
spoon is chosen to succeed boo. l.U. 
y„r,l (Gabriel, II.). A indent in lb- ol,i,, 

of Abraham Ogden ; for many yeat 
of the Supreme Court; »Utt living in the lull 
enjoyment of his faculties, 189, note. 
wZSSL (Dr.). Bis "Albany Plea of 
I „,„„," |itu e more than a transcript ol 

Redesign of Daniel Coxe.sketc I many 

vears before, 137; his interview with 
Robert Hunter Morris in New \ork, 147. 



306 



INDEX. 



Franklin (Governor). His Message to the 
Assembly in reference to the Court of 
Chancery, 123 ; his Ordinance establishing 
the Court, 125; his Message to the Assem- 
bly, upon the subject of the riots against the 
lawyers, 172. 

G 

Galloway (Joseph). A celebrated loyalist of 
Pennsylvania; a correspondent of David 
Ogden, 185. 

Gates (Horatio). Letter to, from William 
Smith, the Provincial Historian of New 
York, 155. 

General Sessions of the Peace (Court of). 
Established by Ordinance of Lord Corn- 
bury ; to be held four times a year in every 
County, 43. 

Gordon (Thomas). A native of Pitlochie in 
Scotland, 86 ; emigrates to New Jersey ; 
settles in the neighborhood of the " Scotch 
Plains;" becomes a large Proprietor, and 
fills various offices of honor and trust in the 
Province ; represents Perth Amboy in the 
Assembly, and is chosen Speaker of the 
House, 87 ; is appointed Chief Justice of 
the Supieme Court upon the resignation of 
Mompesson ; is made Receiver General and 
Treasurer of the Province, and relinquishes 
his seat upon the bench ; is appointed Com- 
missioner to execute the office of Attorney 
General ; his death, 88. 

Grahame. A Scotchman, and the author 
of the best Colonial History of the Uniied 
States that has yet appeared, 86 ; extracts 
from his History, 31, note ; 38 ; 71, iiote ;86 

Grand .Jury, of Essex. Their spirited reply 
to the charge of Chief Justice Smyith, 175 ; 
of Cumberland, refuse to find Indictments 
against those who were concerned in the 
destruction of the tea at Greenwich, 181. 

Griffith (Alexander). First Attorney Gen- 
eral for the Province of New Jersey, 52; 
suspended for " sundry misdemeanors, ne- 
glects, and contempts of duty," 88. 

Griffith (William). The learned Compiler of 
the Law Register, 4(5 ; a student in the , 
office of Elisha Boudinot of Newark, 
189, note. 

H 

Hall (William). 80, note. 

Hallo.m. Extracts fiom his Constitutional 
History of England, 9 note, 17, note. 

Haiard (Ebenezer). Postmaster General of 
the United States, and author of Historical 
Collections ; a pupil of the Rev. Samuel 
Finley, 191. 

Henry (John). A member of the old Con- 
gress, a Senator of the United States, and 
Governor of Maryland ; a pupil of the Rev. 
Samuel Finley, 191. 

Hoarkills (Customs at). Exacted by the 
agent of the Duke of York, on all vessels 
ascending the Delaware to New Jersey, 32 ; 
argument, against. 33, et scq. 

Hoffman (Jo^iah Ogden). A student in the 
office of Abraham Ogden ; Attorney Gen- 
eral of New York, and Judge of the Supe- 
rior Court at the time of his death, 189, 
note. 

Hollingshead (John). Indictment against for 
utteing seditious words of Lord Cornbury, 



53 ; grand jury return it with an inrjio- 
ramui ; information exhibited against him, 
54; applies for a postponement of his 
trial ; the motion is allowed, but upon con- 
ditions with which he refuses to comply ; he 
is committed for contempt, 55 ; is tried and 
acquitted, 56. 

Hooper (Robert Lettice). Appointed Chief 
Justice upon the death of William Trent, 
126 ; is succeeded by Thomas Farmar, ib. ; 
is again appointed Chief Justice, 128 ; 
continues to act until his death, 129. 

Hopkinson (Francis). A delegate from New 
Jersey, and a signer of the Declaration of 
Independence ; appears in Congress, and 
presents the instructions under which he and 
his colleagues were appointed, 197, note. 

Howell (Richard). Governor of New Jersey ; 
assisted in the destruction of the tea at 
Greenwich, 179. 

Buddy (Hugh), 80, note. 

Hume. Extract from his Essay on the origin 
of government, 3, note. 

Hunter (Rev. Andrew). A chaplain in the 
American Army during the whole of the 
Revolutionary war; assisted in the destruc- 
tion of the tea at Greenwicli ; his second 
wife a daughter of Richard Stockton, 179. 

Hunter (Rev. Andrew). Pastor of the Presby- 
terian church in Greenwich, in the County 
of Cumberland ; an ardent Whig, 179, 
note. 

Hunter (Governor). Succeeds Lord Love- 
lace ; his first Address to the House of As- 
sembly, 79 ; a native of Scotland ; marries 
a peeress ; a friend of Addison and Swift ; 
appointed Lieutenant Governor of Virginia; 
is taken prisoner by the French ; is appointed 
Governor of Jamaica; a man of some liter- 
ary pretensions, 89, note ; his address on 
behalf of the Quakers, 94 : claims the right 
to act as Chancellor without the aid of his 
Council, 114. 



Indians. Their right, to the soil always respec- 
ted in New Jersey ; the Six Nations at 
Fort Stanwix confer upon New Jersey the 
title of the Great Doer of Justice, 5, note. 

Ingoldsby (Lieutenant Governor). Unites 
with the Council in an address to the Queen, 
justifying the conduct of Lord Cornbury. 
69 ; acts as Governor upon the death of 
Lord Lovelace; a dull, heavy man, 78; 
remonstrances are made to the Queen for 
his removal, to which she at last yields, 79. 

Institutio J,egalis, of Newark, a sort of Moot 
Court, kept up for many years, 189, note. 



Jamison (David). Appointed Chief Justice 
in place of Mompesson, 89 ; a popular law- 
yer of New York ; distinguished himsell in 
defence of McKemie the Presbyterian 
clergyman ; is Chief Justice during the whole 
of d'overnor Hunter's administration, 91 ; 
is indicted in the Court of Quarter Sessions 
of Burlington ; delivers a speech in the 
Supreme Court, 94 ; indictment removed 
to the Supreme Court, and quashed, 97 ; 
his charge to the Grand Jury at Burlington, 
103; continued in office by Governor Bur- 
net ; the Assembly complain of his residing 



INDEX. 



307 



in New York, and address Governor Burnet 
upon the subject, 104 ; he is superseded, 
and William Trent appointed in his place. 
105. 

Jenhigs (Samuel). Speaker of the Assembly, 
03; presents their address to Lord Corn- 
bury, 62 ; was Governor of West Jersey 
under the Proprietary government. ; his char- 
acter, 63, note. 

Johnson (Robert G.). One of the Vice Presi- 
dents of the New Jersey Historical Society; 
lias preserved the names of those who were 
concerned in the destruction of the tea at 
Greenwich, 178. 

Jones (Nathaniel). Is appointed Chief Justice 
of New Jersey on the death of Aynsley, 151 ; 
arrives at Amboy where he receives his 
commission ; makes a visit to Elizabeth- 
town ; his reception there ; at the next Term 
of the Supreme Court, prays that, the oath 
of office may be administered to him, 158 : 
Robert Hunter Morris claims to be si ill 
Cliipf Justice ; the matter is referred to the 
Court, 153 ; Judge Nevill decides against 
Jones ; he puts his commission in his pocket, 
and returns to England, 154. 

Judges, during the Colonial government were 
clad in official robes, and affected much 
state ; costumes worn by them before the 
Revolution, 20, note. 

Justice's Courts, and convenient tribunals ; 
origin of, 8. 

Justices of the Trace, their jurisdiction in civil 
cases, by the ordinance of Lord Cornbury, 
143. 

K 

Kearney (Philip). Letter to, from David Og- 

den, 10-2. 

Keith (Sir William). Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania ; establishes a Court of Chancerv. 110; 
orders the hat of John Kinsey. a Quaker 
lawyer, to betaken off in Court ; excitement 
caused by it ; a rule of Court adopted, allow- 
ing Quakers to wear their hats. 111. 

Killingworth (Tbomas). Informations a?ainst, 
for speaking contemptuously of the Church 
of England ; tried and acquitted, 56. 

Kinsey (John). Father of John Kinsey, Chief 
Justice of Pennsylvania ; chosen speaker of 
the Assembly upon the expulsion of Daniel 
Ooxe, 99. 

Kinsey (John). Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, 
and father of James Kinsey, Chief Justice 
of New Jersey, 99, note ; a Quaker lawyer ; 
wears his hat in the Court of Chancery ; it 
is ordered to be taken off; great offence 
given to the Quakers bv it. 111. 

Kinsey (James). Chief Justice of New Jersey, 
90, note : appears at the bar of the Assembly, 
to plead the cause of the lawyers of New 
Jersev. 108. 

Kitchell (Aaron). Member of Assembly from 
the County of Morris ; introduces the fable 
of the fox and geese, in answer to a speech 
of Abraham Ogden, 18^, note. 



Laurence (John). A distinguished lawver of 
Burlington, father of the gallant ('apt. James 
Lawrence of the navy, 107. note. 

I,?.:cs, curly, few and simple, 15. 



Lairs, of East Jersev nnder the Proprietary 
Government. 205, et seq. 

J. (its, oi Wesl Jersey under the Proprietary 
Government, 205, ct seq. 

Lawyers, New Jersey blessed by the absence 
of. 22 : soon found their way into the colony, 
33 ; of New Jersey, the first to adopt mea- 
sures of opposition to the Stamp Act, 159; 
resolutions of a meeting of the bar held at 
Amboy, and the effect of them, 160 
tions proposed to the bar bv Chief Justice 
Smyth, and their answers to them, 161 ; 
another meeting of the bar held at New 
Brunswick. 102: resolutions adopted, bold 
and spirited, 163 ; complaints against the 
lawyers of New Jersey, 104 ; causes of the 
excitement which existed, 165 ; the Assem- 
bly investigate the charges, 166 ; the lawyers 
address a memorial to the House, praying 
leave to be heard at their bar, 167 ; leave 
granted, and the hearing takes place, 168 : 
the lawyers make charges against Samuel 
Tucker ; they are investigated bv the House, 
and Mr. Tucker found suilty, 170; riots in 
Monmouth and Essex. 171 ; rioters punished 
in Essex, but screened in Monmouth; mes- 
sage of Governor Franklin to the Assembly 
upon the subject, 172; in the Revolution, 
a majority of the lawyers were Whigs ; but 
the "giants of the law " are said to have 
been nearly all loyalists, 181 ; thorough-bred 
lawyers, a race of men that became numer- 
ous in New Jersev. 182. 

Lreiis (Daniel. Signed the address of the 
Lieutenant Governor and Council to the 
Queen, justifying the conduct of Lord Corn- 
bury, ">0, note. 

Legrange (Bernardus). An attorney at law. 
charged before the Assembly with having 
taken illegal fees ; is tried and convicted, 
and reprimanded by the speaker at the bar 
of the House, 166 ; procures certificates of 
the Judges of the Supreme Court, by which 
he is wholly exonerated, 167. 

Livingston (William). Governor of New Jer- 
sey ; puts his name to the answer to the F.liza- 
bethtown Bill in Chancerv. 121 ; Sedgwick's 
life of, referred to, 107, note. 

Logan (James). Letter to, from William 
Penn, introducing Roger Monipesson, 58 ; 
extracts from his letters to Penn, 59. 

Lovelace (Lord). Governor of New Jersey; 
sn >ded Lord Cornbury; rongialulatory 

ad lre-s to him by the Council. ', ~> ; hi sadden 

and premature death, 7 J . 

M 

Mngarinr (The New American), printed bv 
James Parker, published at Woodbridge, and 
edited by Samuel Nevill ; first periodical in 
New Jersey, and necond magazine of the 
kind on the Continent, 157. 

Martin (Alexander). Governor of No^h Caro- 
lina, and a delegate to the Convention which 
framed the Constitution of the United States; 
a pupil of the Rev. Samuel Pinley, 157. 

Massachi illy in advance nf the 

other Colonies ; but her lawvei deem it no 

possible to conduct judicial business in 0|hmi 

disregard of an act ofparlia nt, 163. 

MrKniiit (Francis). A Presbyterian ctergj 

man. tried in New York for preaching with- 
out a license ; he is acquitted, but the Court 



308 



INDEX. 



refuse to discharge him, until he has paid the 
fees of prosecution, 7-2. 

McWhorter (Rev. Alexander), of Newark, a 
distinguished clergyman ; a pupil of the Rev. 
Samuel Finley, 191. 

Me Whortcr (Alexander C). An eminent law- 
yer ; a student in the office of Elisha Boudi- 
not of Newark, 189. 

Minutes of the Supreme Court, contain full 
reports of some of the early trials ; a mine of 
curious and valuable information, 51, note. 

Mompesson (Rev. William). Rector of Eyam 
in Derbyshire during the time of the plague 
in London ; performed the functions of phy- 
sician and priest ; extracts from a letter 
written by him to Sir George Saville, 57, 
note. 

Mompesson (Roger). The first Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court of New Jersey, 51 ; sup- 
posed to have descended from the Rev. 
William Mompesson, Rector of Eyam. 57 ; 
arrives in Philadelphia, bearing a letter from 
William Peon to Samuel Logan, 58; appoint- 
ed Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, and prob- 
ably never took his seat upon the bench, 61), 
note; is made Chief Justice of New Jersey 
and New-York, 00 ; a member of Lord Corn- 
bury's Council, fil ; puts his name to the 
address of the Lieut. Governor and Council 
to the Queen, 70 ; Assembly comment with 
much severity upon his conduct, 71 ; upon 
the removal of Cornbury surrenders his com- 
mission, 71 ; his conduct as Chief Justice of 
New-York, 72 ; presides at the trial of Fran- 
cis McKemie, the Presbyterian clergyman, 
who was indicted for preaching without 
license, ib. ; marries a daughter of William 
Pinhorne, 75 ; is restored to office upon the 
retirement of Thomas Gordon, 89 ; upon the 
arrival of Governor Hunter, again surrenders 
his commission, ib. 

Monmouth, tiots in, against the lawyers, 171 ; 
rioters screened from punishment, 172 ; tories 
in Monmouth, 173. 

Montgomery (Governor). His aversion to the 
Court of Chancery, 115. 

Monthly Court of small causes (first establish- 
ment of), 7 ; the original of the Justice's 
Court, 8 ; either prfPty at liberty to demand 
a jury, 1 1. 

Morris (Governor). Grandson of Governor 
Lewis Morris, 143. 

Morris (Lewis). Governor of New Jersey, ex- 
pelled from the Council by Lord Cornbury, 
61 ; draws up 'he remonstrance of the As- 
sembly, 62 ; appointed Chief Justice of New- 
York, 91 ; hisearly years, 138; his character, 
140; appointed Governor of New Jersey, 
141 ; difficulties with the Assembiy, 142 ; his 
death, 143. 

Morris (Lewis). One of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, a grandson of 
Governor Morris, 143. 

Morris (Robert Hunter). Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court, 137 ; son of Gove nor Lewis 
Morris, 133 ; held the office of Chief Justice 
twenty-six years ; his education, appearance, 
manners, 144 ; his character as a Judge, 
145; visits England, ib. ; it is proposed to 
make him Lieutenant Governor of New- 
York ; for some reason the appointment not 
made, 146 ; is appointed Governor of Penn- 
sylvania, 147 ; interview with Dr. Franklin, 
ib. ; his difficulties wijh the Assembly of 



Pennsylvania, 148 ; tenders his resignation 
as Chief Justice, in a letter to the Lords of 
Trade, 149 ; names Richard Saltar as his 
successor ; his resignation not accepted ; re- 
linquishes his situation as Governor of Penn- 
sylvania , makes another visit to England, 
150 ; during his absence, William Aynsley 
appointed Chief Justice, 151 ; controversy 
with Nathaniel Jones as to the Chief Justice- 
ship, 153 ; decision in favor of Mr. Morris, 
154 ; his sudden and melancholy death, 155. 
Murray (Joseph). A distinguished lawyer of 
New-York; signs the Elizabelhtown Bill in 
Chancery, 120. 

N 

" Negro plot" in New York, cruelties attend- 
ing it ; probably the whole affair a delusion, 
131. 

Nevill (Samuel). Second Judge of the Su- 
preme Court ; had been Editor of the Lon- 
don Morning Post, before coming to Amer- 
ica, 155 ; he was connected by marriage 
with Peter Sonmans, and inherited his pro- 
prietary interests in East Jersey ; comes to 
New Jersey, and takes up his residence at 
Amboy ; becomes a member of the Assem- 
bly, and is fur many years Speaker of the 
House, 156; is appointed a Judge of the 
Supreme Court, and for sixteen years dis- 
charges its duties with fidelity ; publishes 
the laws of the Province in two volumes ; 
edits " The New American Magazine," 
157 ; his death, 15^. 

New Jersey. Her history divided into three 
periods, 4 ; her treatment of the Indian, 5, 
note ; an insurrection among the slaves, the 
only instance of the kind in her annals, 
130; the condition of slaves in, 131; 
allowed to have a separate Governor f-om 
New York, 139 ; her resistance to the Stamp 
Act, 159. 

Norburie (George). His quaint tract on " the 
abuses and remedies of Chancery ;" extract 
from it, 118. 

North Carolina. "Regulators" in rise 
in arms to exterminate the lawyers ; in the 
Revolution most of them join the royal 
party, 173. 

Nottingham, Lord Chancellor in the reign 
of Charles II ; his remark about the Statute 
of Frauds. 17, note ; has been called the 
Father of Equity, 109, note. 

O 

Ogdcn (Abraham). Son of David Ogden ; a 
distinguished lawyer after the Revolution; 
District Attorney of the United States ; a 
member of the Legislature, and advocates 
the calling of a Convention to revise the 
Constitution, 188. 

Ogden (David). Son of Josiah Ogden ; 
brother of Dr. Jacob Ogden ; born in New- 
ark, 182 ; a graduate of Yale College ; reads 
law in New York; practises in New Jer- 
sey ; rises rapidly in his profession ; is ap- 
pointed a Judge of the Supreme Court, 183 ; 
upon the breaking out of the Revolution, 
seeks protection from the British in New 
York, 184 ; an active loyalist ; a member of 
the Board of Refugees ; a correspondent of 
Joseph Galloway ; draws up a plan for the 
government of the Colonies after their sub- 



INDEX. 



309 



mission to Groat Britain, 185; after the 
peace sees to England ; his estate confisca- 
ted; receives compensation from the British 
government ; returns to the United States, 
and takes up his residence on Long Island, 
187 ; his death, and family, 188. 
Orrden (David B.)- A distinguished lawyer 
"of New York ; son of Samuel and grandson 
of David Ogden ; pursued his profession for 
some years in New Jersey, 189. 
Ogden (Isaac). Son of David Ogden ; Clerk 
of the Supreme Court ; joined the British in 
New York ; went to England ; settled in 
Canada, and became a Judge of the Su- 
preme Court, 188. 
0<rden (Samuel). Son of David Ogden, and 
father of David B. Ogden ; member of the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania, and of the 
Convention that framed her Constitution of 
1790, 189. 
Olive (Thomas). Governor of West Jersey ; 
dispensed justice " sitting on the stumps in 
his meadows," 20. 
Ordinances of Governor and Conned, must 
look to them for the Constitution of our 
Courts, after the Surrender, 42. 
Ordinance of Lord Cornbury, the foundation 
of our whole judicial system, 42 ; its provi- 
sions, 43, et seq. ; not to be found in the 
books of CommUsions in (he office of Secre- 
tary of State, 47 ; a copy of it found in the 
State Library, 50; probably framed by 
Roger Mompesson, ib. 
Ordinance of George II., not the foundation 
of the jurisdiction of our Courts, 47; little 
more than a copy of the original ordinance 
of Lord Cornbury ; continued in force bnt 
a single year, 48. 
Oyer and Terminer (Court of)- It* ' irst estaD " 
lishment in West Jersey ; of whom com- 
posed, 26. 



Parker (James). Prints "The New Ameri- 
can Magazine," 157. 
Penn (William). Assists in the preparation 
of the argument against the customs at the 
Hoarkills, but probably not the sole author 
of it 32, note; his letter to James Logan, 
recommending Roger Mompesson, 58 ; ex- 
tracts from other letters ot his to Logan, 
59, note ; presides at a trial for witchcraft in 
Pennsylvania, 103. note. 
Penn and Mead (Trial of). At the Old 
Bailey, for preaching to a tumultuous 
assembly, 29, note. 
Perth Imboy. Named in honor ot the barl ot 
Perth, 13 ; a favorite project of the Proprie- 
taries, 14, note. 
Petit (Charles). Employed by the owners of 

the tea destroyed at Greenwich. 179. 
Philadelphia (Lawyers of). Hold a meeting 
upon the subject of the Stamp Act, 1M , 
bnt three individuals in favor of carrying on 
business without stamps. 164. 
Pinhorne (William). Originally a merchant 
in the city of New York ; became a member 
of Council, and a Judge of the Supreme 
Court in that Province; removes to New 
Jersev, 74 ; is appointed Second Judge of 
the Supreme Court; his connexion with 
Roger Mompesson, 75; signs the address 
from the Lieutenant Governor and Council 

21 



to the Queen ; is denounced by the Assem- 
bly in unsparing terms. 76 ; their address 
however to be taken with some grains of 
allowance, 77 ; acts as Governor upon the 
removal of Lieut. Governor [ngoldsby ; is 
superseded by the arrival of Governor Hun- 
ter, 79 ; his removal from the Council, 80, 
note: retires into private life, el; bis 
death, 82. 

Pinhorne (John). Son of William Pinhorne, 
an Attorney at Law and Clerk of the House 
of Assembly ; did not long survive his 
father, 82. 

Pomphrcy (Walter). Indictment against, for 
speaking seditious words of Lord Cornbury, 
53; returned with an ignoramus ', an In- 
formation filed against him for the same 
offence, 54 ; tried aud a verdict of guilty 
rendered, but the Court did not dare to pro- 
nounce judgment, 55. 

a 

Quakers. Settlement of West Jersey by, 31 ; 
Lord Combury's attacks upon them. 66; 
their reply to him, 09 ; controversy with re- 
gard to accepting their affirmation, in lieu of 
an oath, 93 et seq : the same question pro- 
duced serious difficulties in Pennsylvania, 
96, note. 

Quaker legislation. First essay of, to be 
found in the West Jersey Concessions, 31, 
note. 

Quarry (Robert). Signed the address of tne 
Lieut. Governor and Council to the Q,ueen, 
justifying the conduct of Lord Cornbury ; 
a member of Council in five of the Colonies 
atone time, 70, note. 

R 

Read (Charles). Succeeds Robert Hunter 
Morris as Chief Justice ; recommended by 
Lord Stirling ; holds the office but a few 
months ; consents to take again the place of 
Second Judge, which he had previously 
held, 158. , , 

Read (George). Of New Castle, one of the 
counsel retained on behalf of those concerned 
in the destruction of the tea at Greenwich, 
180. 
Reading (John). Upon the death of Gov. 
Belcher, he became entitled, as the first 
named of the Councillors, to act as Gover- 
nor ; was reluctantly prevailed upon to as- 
sume the duties, 151. 
Read (Joseph). Appears at the bar or the 
Assembly, to plead the canse of the lawyers 
of New Jersey ; became Adjutant General 
of the Continental army, a member of Con- 
gress and President of the Executive < OUD 
cil of Pennsylvania ; his noble reply to the 
offer made to him upon condition of his 
effecting a reunion between the Colonies 
and the Crown, 168 ; born at Trenton ed- 
ucated at Princeton, read law with Richard 
Stockton, pursued his profeerioi for MOM 
years in New Jersey, and then removed to 
Philadelphia, 168, note. 
Remdatora, in North Carolina, take nn arms 
to exterminate lawyers ; in the Revolution, 
most of them enlisted under the king s ban- 
ner, 173. , 
Revell (Thomas). One of Lord Cornbury s 
Council ; signed the atldress of the Lieut. 



310 



INDEX. 



Governor and Council to the Q,ueen, 70, 
note. 

Rhode Island. Burning of the British Schooner 
Gaspee, by the Whigs of: Commissioners 
appointed to examine into the affair; con- 
tinued in sessions several months without 
procuring any evidence ; a Court of Inquiry 
only ; the " Court " alluded t§, in the ad- 
dress of the firat Congress to the inhabitants 
of the Colonies, 174. 

Rush (Dr. Benjamin). Of Philadelphia, a 
pupil of the Rev. Samuel Finley, J 91 ; one 
of the signers of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence ; married a daughter of Richard 
Stockton, 199, note. 

Rush (Judge). A brother of Dr. Benjamin 
Rush ; a pupil of the Rev. Samuel Finley, 
191. 

Rush (Julia). A daughter of Richard Stock- 
ton ; married to Dr. Benjamin Rush ; died 
at an advanced age in Philadelphia, 199, 
note. 

S 

Sandford (William). Signs the address of 
Lieut. Governor and Council to the Q,ueen, 
justifying Lord Cornbury ; refuses to ac- 
knowledge his fault, 70, note ; is expelled 
from the Assembly in consequence of it, 71. 

Saltar (Richard). An associate Judge of the 
Supreme Court ; recommended by Robert 
Hunter Morris as his successor in the office 
of Chief Justice, 150. 

Scotch emigrants to New Jersey, of a class 
superior both to the Dutch and English ; 
many of them men of family and education, 
86. 

Selden. Extract from his " Table Talk," 109, 
note. 

Sergeant (Jonathan Dickinson). One of the 
counsel on behalf of those who were con- 
cerned in the destruction of the tea at Green- 
wich, 179 ; born near Princeton ; a gradu- 
ate of the College of New Jersey ; read law 
with Richard Stockton ; a member of the 
Provincial Congress, and one of the com- 
mittee that drafted the first Constitution of 
New Jersey ; his house in Princeton burnt 
by the British army; made Attorney Gen- 
eral of Pennsylvania, and removes to Phila- 
delphia; died of the yellow fever in 1793 ; 
father of the Hon. John Sergeant of Phila- 
delphia, 180, note. 

Sheriffs. First provided for, and process out of 
the County Courts directed to them, 12. 

Slavery, in New Jersey ; never did it exist in a 
milder form, 131. 

Slave Insurrection, in New Jersey ; the only' 
instance of the kind recorded in our annals, 
130 ; in New York, cruelties attending, 131. 

Smith (Samuel Stanhope). Vice President of 
the College of New Jersey ; pronounces a 
funeral discourse upon Richard Stockton ; 
extracts from it, 200. 

Smith (William). Puts his name to the 
"answer" to the Elizabethtown bill in 
Chancery ; became Chief Justice of New 
York, and after the Revolution Chief Justice 
of Canada, 121 ; his letter to Horatio 
Gates, 155, 158. 

Smyth (Frederick). The last Chief Justice of 
the Colony of New Jersey ; his appoint- 
ment, 159 ; desires the members of the Bar 



to attend him, to consult about the Stamp 
Act, 100 ; the questions which he proposes 
to them, with their answers, 161 ; one of the 
Commissioners to examine into the affair of 
the burning of the British Schooner Gaspee, 
174; a firm and consistent loyalist; his 
charge to the Grand Jury of Essex, 175; 
presides at a Court of Oyer and Terminer in 
Cumberland, and charges the Grand Jury 
strongly upon the destruction of the tea at 
Greenwich, 180 ; removed to Philadelphia 
when the Revolution broke out, and died 
there, 181. 

Sonmans (Arent). One of the twenty-four 
Proprietors; father of Peter Sonmans ; shot 
by a highwayman on his journey from Scot- 
land to London, 84. 

Sonmans (Peter). Son of Arent Sonmans ; a 
native of Holland ; educated at Leyden ; 
succeeds to his father's estates in New Jer- 
sey ; indicted for perjury, tried and ac- 
quitted ; the Assembly charge that he owed 
his escape to a packed jury, 84 ; publishes 
a vindication of himself which has come 
down to us, and is a production of some 
vigor, 85. 

Sons of liberty. An association which had 
sprung up in most of the Colonies ; in favor 
of setting the provisions of the Stamp Act 
at defiance, 162 ; unite in a written request 
to the members of the Bar, that they would 
proceed to business as usual without stamps, 
163. 

Southard (Samuel L.), Advocates before the 
Legislature a claim made by a remnant of 
the Delaware tribe of Indians ; extract from 
his speech, 5, note. 

Stacey (Mahlon). His plantation of eight 
hundred acres, on both sides of the Assan- 
p ink, purchased by William Trent, 105. 

Stamp Act. Measures adopted by the law- 
yers of New Jersey, in opposition to, 159 ; 
their example followed in other Colonies, 
160 ; the stamps arrived but no one would 
purchase them, 162 ; another meeting of the 
Bar, and the resolutions adopted, 163; repeal 
of the Stamp Act render further proceedings 
unnecessary, 164. 

Stirling (Lord). Addresses a letter to Gov. 
Franklin, recommending Charles Read as a 
suitable person for Chief Justice, 158. 

Stockton (John). Father of Richard Stock- 
ton ; a liberal friend of the College of New 
Jersey ; presiding Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas of Somerset, 190. 

Stockton (Richard). Born at Princeton ; great 
pains bestowed on his education ; sent to 
the academy of the Rev. Samuel Finley at 
Nottingham in Maryland, 190 ; received the 
honors of the first commencement of the 
College of New Jersey, 191 ; reads law with 
David Ogden ; pursues his profession as 
Princeton with distinguished success ; visits 
England, 192 ; is requested to make a per- 
sonal application to Dr. Witherspoon to 
solicit his acceptance of the Presidency of 
the College of New Jersey ; his journey to 
Scotland for that purpose ; the result of his 
visit, and his agency in securing the services 
of Dr. Witherspoon, 193 ; his reception in 
Scotland; returns to America: is made a 
member of Council, and a Judge of the Su- 
preme Court ; is elected a member of the 
general Congress, 196 ; is present during the 



INDEX. 



311 



debates which preceded the Declaration of 
Independence; expresses his concurrence in 
the measure ; puts his name to that immor- 
tal instrument, 197; his residence at Prince- 
ton in the route of the British Army ; com- 
pelled to fly with his wife and children ; the 
place of his retreat discovered by a party of 
refugee loyalists ; is stripped, plundered, 
taken to New York, and thrown into a com- 
mon jail, 198; his sufferings call for the in- 
terposition of Congress ; his death, 199 ; 
leaves two sons, Richard and Lucius Hora- 
tio, who became eminent lawyers, and four 
daughters, 199, note ; his character, as 
drawn by Dr. Smith in his funeral discourse, 
200. 

Stockton (Mrs.). The wife of Richard Stock- 
ton, and sister of Elias Boudinot ; a woman 
of a cultivated mind, and of fine literary 
taste ; the writer of a number of poetical 
effusions, 199, note. 

Supreme Court. Its jurisdiction defined by 
Lord Cornbury's ordinance ; has remained 
without change to the present day, 44 ; two 
Supreme Courts established, one for East 
and the other for West Jersey, 48 ; object of 
this arrangement; did not continue many 
years, 49, note ; early minutes of, 50 ; first 
Session of the Court, and some of its early 
proceedings, 51, et seq. 

Surrender of the government to the crown ; 
motives which led to it ; the surrender abso- 
lute and unconditional, but, by the instruc- 
tions to Lord Cornbury, the rights of the 
Proprietors in the .oil were confirmed to 
them, 40, note. 

T 

Tea (Destruction of). At Greenwich, in the 
County of Cumberland, 178 ; suits brought 
by the owners ; the whigs of the County re- 
solve to raise money for the purpose of de 
fending them, 179 ; never brought to trial, 
180 ; the Grand Jury refuse to find indict- 
ments against the individuals concerned, 
181. 

Thanksgiving days, appointed by act of As- 
sembly in East Jersey, 209. 

Thomas (Gabriel). Notice of his History of 
Pennsylvania and West New Jersey, 22, 
note. 

Townley (Richard). Signed the address of the 
Lieut. Governor and Council to the Q.ueen, 
justifying Lord Cornbury, 70, note. 

Trent (William) A native of Scotland ; 
came to this country at an early day, and 
settled at Philadelphia ; Judge of the Su- 



preme Court of Pennsylvania, and Speaker 
of the House of Assembly, 105 ; purchases 
Mahlon Stacey's plantation, and removes 
to New Jersey ; represents the County o 
Burlington in the Assembly, and is made 
Speaker of the House ; appointed Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court ; his sudden 
death, 10b ; Trenton is named after him ; 
he presents to the County the lot on which 
the first Court House was built, 107. 

Trenton. Capital of the State ; named after 
William Trent, 10G; originally called " Lit- 
tle Worth," 107. 

Tucker (Samuel). President of the Conven- 
tion which framed the Constitution of the 
State ; Chairman of the Committee of 
Safety ; lakes a protection from the British ; 
is active in fomenting complaints against 
the lawyers ; had been Sheriff of Hunter- 
don, 1C9 ; is charged with having takni ille- 
gal fees ; tried by the Assembly, of which 
he was a member, and convicted, 170. 

Turnbull (Thomas). Information against, 
for speaking scandalous words of Lord Corn- 
bury ; complains that he can get no Attor- 
ney to defend him, 82; Court assign him 
counsel, who advises him to plead guilty : 
sentence of the Court, 83. 

W 

JVaddell (Rev. James). A pupil of the Rev. 
Samuel Finley, 191. 

West Jersey. Courts in, 24 ; laws in, under 
Proprietary government, 205 et seq. ; crimi- 
nal code, 207. 

West Jersey Proprietors. Concessions of, 27 
et seq. 

Witchcraft. No prosecution for, has overtaken 
place in New Jersey, 103 ; trial for in IVnn 
sylvania, at which Penn presided, ib., note. 

nitherspoon (Rev. Dr.). Upon the death of 
Dr. Finley, is elected President of the Col- 
lege of New Jersey ; Mr. Stockton is re- 
quested to solicit in person his acceptance of 
it; takes a journey to Scotland for the pur- 
pose; the result of his visit, J93 ; the diffi- 
culties which at first prevented his accept- 
ance are removed, 195 ; espouses the cause 
of the Colonies ; is chosen a delegate to the 
general Congress, sitting in Philadelphia ; 
the instructions under which the delegate! 
from New Jersey acted, 196 ; is present 
during the discussion of the question of In- 
dependence ; his reply to a member who said . 
we were "not yet ripe for a Declaration of 
Independence," 198. 



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